The board of directors of the Chennai-based Indian Medical Practitioners Cooperative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (IMPCOPS) has decided to increase the prices of its medicinal products from December this year onwards. A price hike of 20-40 per cent was made to all the medicines that are manufactured and sold by the society, it is learnt.



Shareholders and distributors allege that this is the fourth price hike by the present board of directors and the decision to raise the prices of medicines, will adversely affect the sales of IMPCOPS products and reduce the revenue of the society.



Sources from the society said it was forced to hike the prices because of the increase in prices of raw materials. However they said the price hike has not affected the sales of the products. The prices of certain products have gone up ten times.



Prices of Lehyams, Thailams, Choornams and Tablets were increased, but there was no hike on the prices of Arishtams. The price of 500 gram of Laboob Kabeer Lehyam has been raised from Rs.600 to Rs.1312 and of Aswagandhathi Lehyam of same quantity has been raised to Rs.222 from its earlier price of Rs.124. Half kilogram of Jeerakabilvadi Lehyam will now cost Rs.262, which was available for Rs.198 earlier. The new price for 500 gram of Venpoosani Lehyam is Rs.272, which was being sold at Rs.160 till last month.



The price of the popular IMPCOPS product, Muffrah Ahmedhi, (half kg), has gone to Rs.314 from Rs.200. The Lehyam, Kabh Arshathwala’s present price is Rs.551, which was being sold earlier for Rs.400.



As per the new price list, the price of one packet of Sudarsanachoornam tablets (100 Nos) has risen to Rs.50 from Rs.35. Price of one packet of Sarvagandha tablets has now doubled to Rs.80. An increase of Rs.10 has come on the price of Tripalachoornam tablets (100 Nos) which was priced at Rs.18 earlier.



The sources said there is an increase of Rs.10 in the price of 100ml Pinda Thailam, which was sold for Rs.40 previously. The prices of all thailams have also gone up.



However, when contacted, IMPCOPS president Dr A Ramalingam was reluctant to comment on the new price hike.



Impcops, the doctors-cum-manufacturers’ society, which has a turnover of Rs.17 crore, is manufacturing 700 Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani generic formulations. It had lost its Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification in 2007 because of lack of infrastructural facilities and lack of continuous up-gradation. Last year, the director board of the society appointed the Chennai-based ISM service provider, Centre for Traditional Medicines and Research (CTMR) as its technical consultant to suggest measures for achieving the lost GMP status.



With the proposal of CTMR, the Society prepared a project report to upgrade the lab and the manufacturing facilities to increase productivity and turnover, and submitted the same to the government. Later it was awarded the GMP certificate.