US President Donald Trump's plan to sign an executive order to cut prescription drug prices by 30-80 per cent could lead to a global price adjustment with pharma firms pushing lower-cost countries like India to raise prices, according to the economic think tank GTRI. The US move could push prices in lower-cost countries like India as manufacturers would seek to recover losses and R&D costs from these nations.
It will bring 348 essential drugs under price control.
The government has been stringent with pricing changes. Prices of 651 essential medicines came down from April 1, 2023 by 6.73 per cent with the government capping ceiling prices of these drugs.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Srikant Jena said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has been asked to look into demands for bringing 23 anti-cancer drugs within the ambit of price control.
For the poorest 20 per cent of Indians, the expenditure on medicines alone is 85 per cent of what they spend on their health, according to the National Sample Survey.
The industry feels that prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can go up in the range of 5-15 per cent.
Povidone iodine ointment and solutions are available in the market under various popular brands such as Betadine and Wokadine.
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The move is expected to delay the introduction of low-priced medicines in the market.
With these 18 drugs, the government now has brought in 467 medicines under the price control.
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'Trump had done a deal with the current regime minus Maduro. The current regime is giving Trump entry into Venezuelan oil. They are obeying him and doing whatever he says.' 'They are happy because they have saved their heads by sacrificing only two, Maduro and his wife. Thousands of Venezuelan military leaders would have been jailed or killed in American action had Maduro stayed in power.'
According to highly placed sources in NPPA, the reduction in prices following the latest exercise will range between six and 53 per cent.
The Delhi High Court has asked the central government why it cannot reduce the GST on air purifiers, considering the poor air quality in Delhi. The court's concern is that the current 18% GST makes air purifiers unaffordable for the common man.
The drug pricing regulator on Tuesday said it will fix the ceiling prices of over 300 medicines by the end of this month, a move that will come as a major relief to patients.
Currently, the govt directly caps prices of 348 formulations at the average price of all medicines in a particular segment with at least 1% market share
To ensure equal access to health care, the government must consider it in a holistic manner and improve all parameters.
The profit margins of multinational companies importing medicines into India have been hit with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority starting strict scrutiny of price approval applications for imported products.
The latest price revision includes mostly cardiovascular drugs, anti-bacterials, anti-herpes, contraceptives and gastrointestinal medicines
The USTR report, released just ahead of the US' April 2 deadline for implementing reciprocal tariffs, has also cited high tariffs and price caps, which have not increased in line with inflation, as key obstacles for US businesses.
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The Drug (Prices Control) Order implemented in May last year brought into its purview 652 packs of 348 formulations.
The government on Tuesday said the steps taken by the national pharmaceutical pricing authority for enforcement of prices fixed by it had resulted in recovery of an overcharged amount of Rs 80.08 crore (Rs 800.8 million) till October this year.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has revised prices of 440 medicines. Around 300 medicines have seen price cuts, while the others have seen a hike, sources said. The extent of the revisions is not known as yet.
To keep price control to a minimum, the government can act in two areas where it has not done so far.
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Firms are mandated to change prices of medicines within 45 days of NPPA's notification.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority will soon notify prices of as many as 150 packs of essential medicines in line with the new pharma pricing policy, according to official sources.
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The government said that "in exercise of extraordinary powers in public interest, conferred by paragraph 19 of the DPCO, 2013", the ceiling prices of 21 key formulations had been increased. These formulations include common medicines like BCG vaccines, penicillin, malaria and leprosy medicines (Dapsone), life-saving drugs like Furosemide (used to treat fluid build-up due to heart failure, liver scarring, or kidney disease), vitamin C, some common antibiotics, and anti-allergy medicines.
India maintains "high" import duties on a wide range of American goods such as agricultural items, drug formulations, and alcoholic beverages, besides imposing non-tariif barriers, a US report has said. A day before announcing reciprocal tariffs, the US Trade Representative (USTR) released the 2025 National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report on March 31.
NPPA suggests expanding the list of essential medicines whose prices are controlled
Various industry bodies have sought immediate government intervention through the imposition of anti-dumping duties, claiming India has seen a surge in imports of Chinese goods over the past two weeks.
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