Prices of 651 essential medicines have gone down by an average of 6.73 per cent from April, with the Union Health Ministry capping the ceiling prices of a majority of scheduled drugs, said Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday.
Work is on to fix the ceiling price of the remaining 219, he said. Defending the WPI-linked pricing, the Health Minister explained that in September 2022 the scope of the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) was expanded. Accordingly, a cap on the ceiling price of these medicines was imposed, and it resulted in a price drop of 16 per cent between September and April. Now, the WPI index has been a little over 12 per cent, and there will be a hike over the revised down price. This means the effective price from April this year is 7 per cent lower.
For instance, if price of a drug was ₹1 before being brought under the National List of Essential Medicines in September 2022, it subsequently came down by 16 per cent at 84 paise. Now, the same drug will see a maximum of 12 per cent price rise and will be priced at around 93-94 paise from April.
Read more: Why do unethical pharma practices thrive?
“So, the revised prices, post factoring in the 12 per cent price increase is still lower by around 6.73 per cent over the market price of last year,” he explained.
Some of the medicines under the National List of Essential Medicines include paracetamol, diabetes drugs, and medicines to treat cholesterol and heart diseases, among others.
In a tweet, Mandaviya said paracetamol prices stood at ₹1.01 as on April 1 2022, which came down to ₹0.80 in September 2022. This was revised upwards to ₹0.89 from April. In effect, the price reduction was nearly 12 per cent between 2023 and 2022.
Similarly, the price of one tablet of metformin (to treat high blood pressure) went down from ₹2.13 in April 2022 to ₹1.80 in September 2022, with the revised price being ₹2.01 from April 2023. Thus, the price continues to be 6 per cent lower than 2022 levels.
In the case of glimepiride (used to reduce sugar levels), the effective reduction over the 1-year-period was 8.68 per cent, while for telmisartan (used to lower blood pressure) the effective reduction over the period under review is 7.65 per cent.
Annual hikes in prices of drugs listed are based on the WPI. In a statement dated March 25, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had stated that the annual change in Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was 12.12 per cent for 2022.
NPPA fixes the ceiling price of essential medicines of Schedule I under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO) 2013.