A large number of pharmaceutical products having same strength and quality are being sold in the country at huge price differences as they are outside price control. Usually large and medium scale companies sell these products at very high prices taking advantage of the company's reputation whereas small drug companies sell the same products at much lower prices.

As per a latest drug price data prepared by All-India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), a campaign group for rational drug therapy and policy, the price difference between the lowest priced brand and the highest priced brand for the same medicine goes up to 2002 per cent.

For instance, price of Penegra 100 mg (sildenafil citrate 100 mg for erectile dysfunction) marketed by Zydus Alidac, a division of Ahmedabad-based Cadila Healthcare, is reported as Rs 29.16 even as the same strength products from Pfizer, Viagra, has a price of Rs 584 with a price difference of 2002 per cent, according to the report.

The case is not much different in drugs for chronic ailments too. The brand Femara, a letrozole 2.5 mg product from Novartis, costs Rs181.50 even as the same strength of the drug, Oncolet from Biochem, costs Rs 9.90 marking a price difference of almost 1800 per cent between the brands.

The percentage of price difference varies from 220 per cent to 2000 per cent in the report which has listed 16 drugs in therapeutic segments for bacterial and viral infections, cardiac and related disease, diabetes, cancer, psychiatric disorders, metabolic disorders, arthritis and erectile dysfunction.

The study points out the pitfalls in the government policy in control of drug prices, which is limited to a few products in the market while the majority of exceptions are top-selling leading brands. "If one studies the ORG-Nielsen list of top-selling 300 medicines accounting for more than Rs 35,000 crore sales (almost 90 per cent of the retail market), at least 60 per cent of the top-selling 300 medicines are not in the NLEM (National List of Essential Medicines). Therefore 2/3rds of medicines sold in India are not essential medicines by the government's own definition," reveals the report.

The price variation affects the affordability of medicines, as the patients have little chance in choosing the low cost drug as many of these drugs falls into the category of prescription medicines. "Pharma is the only sector in India (and probably in the world) where government tender procurement prices are one to three per cent of the retail market prices. This, if anything indicates, is the level of overpricing," added AIDAN study.

A similar study conducted by the West Bengal based Community Development Medicinal Unit (CDMU), an independent not-for-profit healthcare organization, shows the same price variation of same medicines. The study reveals that the psychiatric medicine resperidone, has a price difference of almost 1498 per cent between the highest and lowest priced brands from Ethnor and Gujarat-based Torrent respectively.

"It is evident from the list that same medicines in two different brands are sold at the rate of 1500 per cent difference. This instance brings back the issue of price difference of some medicines between the brand and branded generic where it was revealed that discount upto 1680 per cent were given by various companies for sale of their so called branded generics," say CDMU sources.

The NGOs has also studied the rise in prices of medicines between the year 1998 and 2008. The highly priced or essential medicines including anti emetic Avomine, anti-tubercular Pyzina and Rcinex-Z, major cough syrup brands - Tixylix, Benadryl, Corex and Phensydil - cardiovascular drug Cardules Plus, insulin product Human Actrapid and anti-diabetic Euglucon were analysed for price increase in the last decade. The study observed that in the last 10 years certain medicines in the category have shown price increase to more than 600 per cent. "Even the medicines for tuberculosis therapy showed price increase to more than 500 per cent," said the organisations.