An acute shortage of penicillin based preparations is likely soon as some of the major companies producing them are planning to stop the production as penicillin G price is shooting up in the market. Major domestic producers of bulk pen G had already discontinued their production some time ago and formulators are mainly depending on imported pen G.

Aurobindo Pharma, DSM, Nector, Surya Pharma, Kopran, Penam and Asiatic are the major drug companies in the country that make antibiotics like Cloxacillin and Cefodroxil. But, these companies on their own cannot hike the prices of these medicines as these are under price control.

Sources said that though these companies have applied for price revision, NPPA has been extremely slow in responding. The price revision study is a lengthy and cumbersome process and it takes at least six months before any decision is taken. The government should immediately provide some interim relief to the industry to make these products financially viable failing which shortage will worsen in coming months.

There has been a huge increase in the price of pen G, price of which has risen from $8 to $20 per billion units during last one year. Pen G is the key raw material for making antibiotics used to treat diseases such as pneumonia, syphilis, meningitis, septicemia, etc. Pen G is an almost 100 per cent imported bulk drug. It is being imported from China and Europe.

The major reason for the sudden steep hike in the price of pen G was the sharp cut in its production in China after the Chinese government asked a large number of pharma units to close down their units due to the stringent environment norms imposed in China following the scare that the Chinese-made foods and medicines contained a chemical used in anti-freeze compounds.