The industry analysts said since most of these drugs were part of Drug Price Control Order and their prices were directly linked with currency fluctuation, a revision in their retail prices largely depended on the discretion of individual companies.
Currently, a majority of these drugs, especially anti-cancer drugs, are imported and sold by multinational companies in India.
The MNCs with an active presence in the oncology (cancer) market include Aventis Pharma, Novartis, and Roche.
Other MNC majors like Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, GSK and Pfizer are also planning to launch their oncology products in India soon.
Sources from Aventis Pharma, a major importer of oncology drugs, declined to comment on the company's stand on price revision.
There are also a few Indian companies importing anti-cancer and other drugs into the Indian market. But, none of these companies are sure about a likely revision in their domestic prices.
"Moreover, the market share of these imported products in the country is negligible at present. Hence the market mechanism will never work to balance the prices in favour of patients," said the industry analysts.
The finance minister had proposed that import duties for 10 vital drugs for AIDS and 14 anti-cancer and certain life-saving drugs be reduced to 5 per cent to make them more affordable to Indians.
"The reduction of custom duty on a few, specified medicines meant for HIV and cancer will have hardly any impact on the great majority of patients. Besides, past experience has shown that imported drug prices are linked more to exchange rates rather than a marginal decrease in custom duties," said Chandra M Gulhati, editor, Monthly Index of Medical Specialities.
Also, the industry experts said, most of these drugs were currently being manufactured in the country and were sold at substantially lower prices.
"By reducing the import duty on some foreign drugs without revising the excise duty on the locally manufactured drugs, the government has actually favoured the multinational companies and not the patients of the country," they added.
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