Even as the union minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers continues his attempts to bring down the "unreasonably high" rate of drug prices, an analysis carried out by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) says that the prices of medicines have not gone up in recent years.
According to the statistics worked out by NPPA, the wholesale price index (WPI) for drugs has not gone up unreasonably. The percent change in WPI for drugs and pharmaceuticals was found to be less as compared to that for all commodities. While the percentage change in WPI was 2.55 for drugs in 2003-'04, the difference was 5.46 in the case of other commodities. In 2002-'03 it was 0.71 and 3.41 respectively. The percentage change in 2001-'02 and 2000-'01 were 3.48 and 5.85 for medicines. The percentage change in the case of other commodities during the same period was 3.6 and 7.16 respectively.
The percentage change in WPI was worked out by NPPA on the basis of the data obtained from the Office of the Economic Adviser, ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Meanwhile, the union minister is moving ahead with his plans to bring more drugs under price control. His announcement to bring all life saving drugs under price monitoring has been followed up by the formation of a high level committee to look into the list of life saving drugs. The committee is headed by G S Sandhu, joint secretary and has Drugs Controller General of India and experts from Law ministry as members.
The intention is to come out with a fresh list of life saving drugs that can be brought under price control. The minister is also working on to bring about a consensus among states to bring about uniform tax system for drug through out the country. He has called for a meeting of all state finance and health ministers to discuss the issue of uniform MRP inclusive of all taxes on August 18th.