The Government has reiterated that it was committed to make available quality drugs at reasonable prices and the National Pharmaceuticals Policy' 2006 was drafted in line with this. It will also be taking steps through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to fix prices of drugs regularly.

Since the inception, NPPA has fixed or revised prices of 4854 scheduled formulation packs. Of these, prices of 2298 scheduled formulations have been revised downward and prices of 844 scheduled formulations have been revised upward. In respect of 1595 scheduled formulation packs, prices have been fixed for the first time and in 117 cases, there has been no change.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs BK Handique in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. He said, the drug policies from time to time were directed towards making drugs available at affordable prices. It was also one of the key objectives of the National Common Minimum Programme, he said.

``Keeping this in view Draft National Pharmaceuticals Policy-2006 has been prepared by this Department after extensive discussions with various stakeholders including drug industry associations, and in line with the declared objective of the Government in the National Common Minimum Programme to make available life saving and essential drugs at reasonable prices to the poor. The draft Policy was submitted before the Cabinet for its approval. The Cabinet considered the Policy in its meeting held on 11.1.2007 and has referred the matter to a Group of Ministers (GOM). A GOM has since been constituted and would be making its recommendations to the Cabinet,'' he said.

The Minister further added that prices of 886 medicines were reduced by the manufacturers voluntarily. The list covered formulations in all dosage forms such as tablets, capsules, syrups, etc. and they find usage in the treatment of a large number of diseases. The medicines covered are antibiotics, cough syrups, painkillers as well as those used during the surgical operations, for the cure of the infectious diseases and for the treatment of hypertension etc.

The details of price movement from the year 2004-05 to 15th February, 2007 are as follow:

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