The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has revised the prices of 258 formulations, with nearly 70 of them including the drugs for diabetes and tuberculosis going up. The price regulator, however, decreased the prices of two bulk drugs while hiking up the rate three other bulk drugs.
According to the notification by the NPPA, the prices of 258 formulations were revised and most of the drugs gone costlier belonged to the diabetes and TB therapeutic areas. The prices of insulin-based formulations by the domestic manufactured have increased in the range of 5-18 per cent. The prices of a good number of formulations also came down while prices of over 20 drugs remained unchanged.
The authority has also fixed the price fixation parameters for non-PVC bags with oxygen barrier properties. The conversion cost, packing charges, packing material cost and process loss that will be calculated for fixing the prices of such bags will now be known to the industry.
In another move, the NPPA has fixed the price of Abbott’s Gardenal Syrup 60 ml at Rs.39.60 and given the company 15 days time to revise its price tag. The epileptic drug of Abbott Healthcare was fixed on the ground that the company had increased the price of this medicine by over 10 per cent between August 2007 and August 2008. The regulations allow drug companies to increase the prices of medicines (that are normally out of price control) up to 10 per cent during a 12-month period.
The price of bulk drug Salbuamol Sulphate was brought down to Rs.3633 per kg from Rs.4478 fixed earlier in 2008. Likewise, the price of Spironolactone was reduced from Rs.29601 to Rs.28859 by the NPPA. However, in the case of Pheniramine Maleate, the price went up to Rs.1330 from Rs.1168 per kg and rate of Pyrantel Pamoate increased from Rs.1182 to Rs.1278 per kg. The price of Chlropropamide, the other bulk drug under revision, however stood unchanged at Rs.326 per kg, as per the notification.