Prices of commonly used medical products such as paracetamol injections, hepatitis B vaccination, glucose and painkiller ibuprofen has been capped.
Drug price watchdog, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has fixed or revised retail prices of 37 scheduled formulations on Thursday.
In the process of price capping, the drug prices usually fall by 10 per cent to 80 per cent, NPPA has not issued the difference in revised prices.
Government has been constantly extending the price control. In March, drug price regulator NPPA has capped the prices of four essential drugs and revised 14 more, including the ones used for treatment of fungal infections and hypertension.
In January also, the government had capped prices of 11 essential drugs while prices of 22 such medicines was revised, including those used for treatment of cancer, HIV, bacterial infections and acid reflux among others.
"In exercise of the powers conferred by Drugs (Prices Control) Order, issued by the Government of India in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, the NPPA hereby fixes the prices as ceiling price exclusive of local tax applicable, if any, in respect of the scheduled formulations," said the order by NPPA.
The manufacturers not complying with the ceiling price shall be liable to deposit the overcharged amount along with interest thereon under the provisions of the DPCO read with Essential Commodities Act, 1955, warns the order.
With the latest move, government has brought 761 formulations under the price control and has extended the national list of essential medicines. In respect of medicines not under price control, manufacturers are allowed to increase the maximum retail price by 10 per cent annually.
