New Delhi: Senior CPI leader and Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate steps to withdraw the decision of drug price regulator to increase prices of various essential drugs by 50 per cent.
Invoking the Drug Price Control Order, 2013, (DPCO, 2013), drug price regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) raised the ceiling prices of 21 formulations by 50 per cent.
The pharma industry had been lobbying for the hike citing a steep rise in prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) or bulk drugs largely imported from China.
API prices account for about 40-80 per cent of the formulation cost. For some medicines such as paracetamol, the API cost is nearly 80 per cent of the total cost.
As a result of the NPPA decision, prices of some of the widely used medicines such as BCG vaccine, anti-malaria drug Chloroquine, anti-leprosy drug Dapsone would go up.
In his letter to the PM, Viswam has said that though the government claims that this move is in public interest, the people apprehend that these steps would lead to a further financial burden on the common masses.
“This decision is a direct attack on the common citizen of this country while serving the interests of large corporations,” the CPI leader has said.
“Given the clear ramifications of this move, I urge you to withdraw this decision and explore alternative solutions in securing the availability of affordable essential life-saving medicines,” he has written.
Viswam said that while the Prime Minister has repeatedly made a call for “Ayushman Bharat”, the reality is that even today the burden of health care is a cause of great indebtedness to millions of people across the country.
All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) has termed the one-time 50 per cent price increase as arbitrary saying it lacks application of mind.
“The Government needs to put in place a system for monitoring API prices and fluctuations,” said S. Srinivasan, co-convenor, AIDAN in a statement following the NPPA order.