India to control price of more drugs

Monday, 02 August 2004, 19:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
CHENNAI: India plans to expand its essential drugs' list liable for price regulation, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said here Sunday. Paswan said the list, which currently has 74 generic drugs, would be expanded to about 300 as part of the United Progressive Alliance government's efforts to make healthcare cheaper as promised in its Common Minimum Programme. "The Ministry of Health has given us a list of 300 drugs, which it considers as essential and life saving," Paswan said. "This list would include anti-AIDS medicine," the minister said. He said the norm of the minimum annual turnover of 40 million for inclusion in the list would now be removed, bringing drugs with lower sales also within the scope of price control. The minister said the government policy was that no essential medicine should cost more than twice its production cost. "The maximum retail price and local taxes should be included in the final sales price, which should not exceed double the cost of production," Paswan said, hinting that state governments will soon be asked to lower tax on essential medicines. Lauding the Delhi government's decision not to impose tax on essential medicines, the minister indicated that other state governments would be asked to follow suit. "My department has called for a production cost list from every manufacturer for every formulation (drug & medicine)," he pointed out. "If the production cost of an 'essential' formulation (inclusive of research cost) is Re.1, it cannot be sold in the Indian market at Rs 37," the minister said. "It must not cost more than 2 for the end user," he insisted. "Every pharma company will also have to make public its recipe," Paswan said. "When bottled water companies have to declare the content ratio of each bottle, the time has come for every medicine company to declare what its product contains," the minister said. "The matter is within the knowledge of the prime minister and we are discussing it with the finance minister," he added, indicating an across-the-board price cut and greater government control of a large number of medicines. Paswan said, "the 300-odd items on the essential list" were a small number compared to over 3,000 formulations being made in India. He said price control efforts would cover imported drugs under the essential drug category.
Source: IANS