CHENNAI: The Centre should introduce a more effective drug pricing policy that would bring down the high profit margins for the pharmaceutical trade and make medicines more affordable to the common man, said S. Srinivasan, managing trustee of LOCOST, a Baroda-based charitable trust, making quality drugs at low cost.

In his presentation on "How overpriced and unaffordable are medical drugs in India?" at a function organised by Sangati Trust on Monday, Mr. Srinivasan said it was as much an indication of the pharmaceutical trade's growing clout as weak political will that had resulted in the decline of essential drugs protected by the price control mechanism.

Expert panels such as the Hathi Committee, the Mashelkar Committee and the Drug Price Review Committee recommended measures to rein in the prices of essential drugs, but there was no headway. Liberalisation had nothing to do with a price protective mechanism in a sector as vital as healthcare. Several countries such as the U.K., France and Japan implemented protective policies. While the World Health Organisation had listed around 350 drugs as essential drugs that could manage 90 per cent of common illnesses, the number of formulations flooding the Indian market had crossed 20,000. This proliferation of "irrational" drugs must be weeded out.

At present, 74 drugs were in the price control basket. Conventionally, the issue of drug pricing which the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority handles has been under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers rather than health. He upheld as a model the Tamil Nadu Government drug procurement programme undertaken through the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation, which procured medicines at between one and two per cent of market prices.

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