The proposal to cap the prices of essential drugs as per the government procurement rates, instead of the market based pricing as proposed in the draft pharmaceutical pricing policy, is unlikely to get the nod of the Group of Ministers (GoM) because of the huge difference between the market prices and procurement rates.

The industry has already pressed the panic button by conveying the apprehensions on the pricing model that will link procurement rates and the market rates. Several leaders of the industry had already raised the issue through informal meetings and representations to the Pharmaceutical Department, it is learnt.

Sources said industry leaders already pointed out that such proposal would be detrimental to the industry as a whole and would want to make representations to the GoM if the proposal was being sent for consideration.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) which is finalising the draft policy is learnt to have based the proposal mainly on the tender prices floated by the Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation (RMSC) and it is likely to cause strong resistance from the industry.

According to the proposal, the prices of Cetrizine 10 mg (10 tabs) is a typical case. Cetzine by GSK is sold at Rs.37.50 while Alerid from Cipla also available at the same price. Zycet from Unichem is sold at Rs.35 making the WAP (weighted average price as suggested in the original market based pricing mechanism) as Rs.35. The RMSC has floated tenders to buy Cetrizine for just 88 paise, which is even below the actual manufacturing cost.

Likewise, the RMSC has put the tender price of Diclofenac Sodium Tablets IP 50 mg (10 tabs) at 1.24 plus VAT while brands like Voveran (Novartis) is sold at Rs.31.73 and Dicloran (Lekar) is available at Rs.23.43 in the market. Anti-infective Albendazole Tablets IP 400 mg is sought to be procured at Rs.6.28 and VAT by RMSC while Zental of GSK is sold at Rs.175 per 10 tabs.

Alembic sells its brand of Azithral (azithromycin tablets IP 500mg) for Rs.308.33 while RMSC has put a procurement rate of Rs.58.80. Atorvastatin tablets IP 10mg is another case. RMSC puts the tender price at Rs.2.98 for 10 tablet blister while Atrova of Zydus costs Rs.103.74. Clopidogrel of USV is priced at Rs.215 per 10 tablet strip in the market while RMSC has put a price of Rs.6.10 for clopidogrel tablets IP 75 mg, as per the data collected in support of the pricing model.