Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Over 800 drugs, including Paracetamol, Azithromycin, under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) will increase by 10.7 per cent starting April 1.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the country’s drug pricing authority on Friday announced a 10.7 per cent change in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the calendar year 2021 over the same period in 2020.
In an order, NPPA said, “Based on the WPI data provided by the office of the Economic Advisor, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the annual change in WPI works out as 10.76607% during the calendar year 2021 over the corresponding period in 2020.”
This comprises drugs like Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride, Metronidazole, Paracetamol, Phenobarbitone, and Phenytoin Sodium. This means the prices of medicines used to cure infections, fever, skin diseases, heart diseases, anaemia, vitamins, and high blood pressure will increase.
“This is brought to the notice of all concerned for further action as per the provisions of Drugs (Price Control) Order, 2013,” the order said.
The NPPA fixes the ceiling price of scheduled medicines, which are procured by the government for various health programmes and provided free of cost at government hospitals, as per provisions of the DPCO.
In the parliament this week, the government said that NPPA has fixed the ceiling prices of 886 scheduled formulations and four scheduled medical devices and fixed retail prices of 1,817 new drugs.
