Pharmaceutical traders are asking the government to fix trade margins for the generics-generic products in the country to ensure uniformity in prices in the market place. The demand has come in the wake of the government plan to sell unbranded generic products through Jan Aushadhi stores at lower prices than market rates. Traders fear that the government move will affect the credibility of the local chemists in the minds of consumers.

Currently, the unbranded generic drugs which are not promoted ethically and sold by the chemist over the counter, does not have any fixed margin for the trader and are sold at different prices. Many of the products are sold at lower prices than the branded product of the same drug. The products, which are not having any promotional costs, are also priced high although their manufacturing costs are much low.

For instance, two ciprofloxacin products of the same company, Cipla Ltd, have a price difference of almost Rs 20 per 10 tablet strips. Ciprotech, the product of Cipla which is not promoted ethically and sold through distributors comes at a price of Rs 69 even as Ciplox, the ethically promoted branded drug from the same company costs Rs 89 per strip. At the same time ciprofloxacin generic-generic is sold at Rs 20 per strip.

The introduction of excise duty to generic-generic products of late, has led many of the companies to sell the generic-generic product under a brand name though not promoted it ethically, said a trade source.

Similarly, an omeprasole brand is priced at Rs 38 per strip while the same drug as an unbranded generic is available over the counter at approximately Rs 4 per strip. Another drug, levocitrazine, is sold at a price of around Rs 30 per strip though the manufacturing cost of the product is below Re 1, said a wholesaler from Tamil Nadu.

The trade sources said the issue in pricing of paracetamol products also shows the need of fixing margins for unbranded drugs. Crocin, a well known paracetamol brand remedy from GSK, is available at Rs 12 per strip whereas a jar of 1000 tablets of paracetamol is sold at for less than Rs 200.

Many a time, the chemists are selling the products at prices far lower than the printed price, by taking less margins to attract the customers. Selling of the same drug at varied prices in different medical stores in an area is creating confusion among the consumers and the credibility of chemist is in danger.

"The government should first fix the price of the unbranded generic products including the margin and make the prices uniform all over the country. Without this effort, announcing a low-cost unbranded generic store under its scheme will not help the majority of the consumers," he averred.

The All India Chemists and Distributors Federation (AICDF), a national trader's body, has earlier criticised the government for creating misconception among the customers on the pricing issue by announcing low-cost unbranded generic stores under its Jan Aushadhi project without fixing up the margin for the products. The consumers, unaware of the difference between the two products, would doubt the trader for selling same medicine in different prices, they added.

The difference in the strength of ingredients used in a formulation will reflect in the drug prices, though the consumer may not notice the difference. "Without knowing these details, the consumer will conclude that the local chemist is exploiting them when the government stores supply the same medicine at low cost. This will definitely affect our business," said Ranka. The federation is planning to disseminate awareness of the issue among its state affiliates and will put similar demands forward to all the state governments which have set up Jan Aushadhi stores.