The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has hiked the prices of three bulk drugs and revised the MRP rates of 24 imported formulation packs, mostly belonging to Eli Lilly and in accordance with the recent court orders on their monocomponent insulin products.


According to a notification by the price monitoring agency dated July 26, the prices of three bulk drugs -- trimethoprim, analgin, and vitamin E Acetate have been increased. The price of analgin, one of the mostly consumed drugs in the country, went up from Rs.523 to Rs.575 per kg. The price was earlier fixed in April 2010 for this bulk drug.


Likewise, the price of trimethoprim went up sharply from Rs.826, fixed way back in March 2006, to Rs.1021 per kg, as per the notice. The formulations based on trimethoprim, used mostly for treatment and prevention of urinary tract infections, are bound to go up accordingly. In the case of Vitamin E Acetate, the new price will be Rs.1207 per kg against the existing price of Rs.1156, that was fixed in January 2009.


The agency has also revised the prices of 24 imported formulation packs, mainly based on bulk drugs of monocomponent insulin and prednisolone acetate. 23 of these packs are from Eli Lilly while the other formulation based on prednisolone belonged to Alcon Lab. (India) Ltd.


“In implementation of directions given in order dated 01.06.2011 in W.P (c) 456/2011 (Eli Lilly and Company India Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Union of India & Anr.) by the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi and review order passed by the Department of Pharmaceuticals by letter no. 31015-PI.I dated 31.05.2011 in respect of price fixation order S.O. No. 1775(E) dated 21.07.2010 fixing the prices of imported Insulin formulations, the matter has been reconsidered and re-examined in the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority,” according to the notice.


“NPPA in its 121st Authority Meeting held on 22.07.2011 duly considered the aforesaid price fixation order and approved the prices of imported formulations considering the CIF prices claimed in Form IV of Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995 (hereinafter mentioned as DPCO 1995). The Authority also considered and approved the guidelines in respect of MAPE/Margin for imported formulations having domestic / indigenous substitute. Accordingly, prices for concerned imported formulations were approved with the margin as applicable to ensure fair and reasonable price to consumer public,” said the notice.