As many as 34 new drugs were added to and 26 dropped from an updated list of essential medicines on Tuesday, with the government saying this will reduce "patients' out-of-pocket expenditure". The National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM 2022) has 384 drugs, up from 376 in 2015. "Drafting this list is a lengthy process, and around 350 experts from across India have held over 140 consultation meetings to draft the NLEM 2022," Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority will monitor how companies are increasing prices of non-scheduled drugs.
The government has begun work on expanding the country's National List of Essential Medicines, which was last revised in 2003.
Indian drugmakers Eris Lifesciences, Wockhardt and Lupin are prepping to cash in when Danish company Novo Nordisk bows out of the human insulin pen market by the end of this year and creates an opportunity estimated to be worth Rs 600-800 crore in the domestic market. Some self-use disposable pens are pre-filled with insulin and others can be reused with new cartridges.
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The Union ministry of chemicals and fertilisers has initiated a move to bring all essential medicines sold in the country under a price cap.
Eight commonly prescribed anti-cancer drugs will soon enter India's National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).
Anti-infectives like Ivermectin, Mupirocin and Meropenem have also been added to the list, taking the total drugs under it to 384.
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.
For the consumer, there would be practically no impact on prices of essential medicines this year.
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.
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.
The government regulates prices of all other medicines.
Jaishankar said the UN Security Council condemned the attack and underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of the reprehensible act and bring them to justice.
While extending the National List of Essential Medicines will help patients, care has to be taken to ensure this does not lead to a slowdown of production as has happened in case of DPCO drugs.
Industry associations and companies in the United States, including the US Chamber of Commerce, Coalition of Services Industries and the iconic bike company Harley Davidson have called on the Donald Trump dispensation to push India to reduce tariffs, non-tariffs, and regulatory barriers to boost American exports.
The new drugs to come under price control include commonly-used antibiotics and painkillers
The US Trade Representative noted that India's average applied tariff rate stood at 17% per cent, the highest of any major world economy.
The eight-member expert committee, which is in charge of revising NLEM, plans inclusion of new drugs to the list and also do away with the current practice of including only specific strengths of medicines in NLEM.
Over 300 life-saving medicines may become cheaper by at least 25 per cent, if the finance ministry considers a proposal by its chemicals and fertilisers counterpart to provide customs and excise duty waivers on all drugs that are part of the National List of Essential Medicines. The chemicals and fertilisers ministry proposal has been supported by pharma companies, who have also agreed to pass on the benefits of such waivers by slashing retail prices.
The unrelenting heatwave sweeping large parts of the country has claimed at least 110 lives and left over 40,000 people grappling with suspected heatstroke between March 1 and June 18 this year, health ministry sources said on Thursday.
To keep price control to a minimum, the government can act in two areas where it has not done so far.
It is estimated that over 95 per cent of drugs being produced in India are off-patent and would not be affected by introduction of product patent,
Ties between India and the United States have been strained in recent years because of trade policies and patent disputes.
NPPA suggests expanding the list of essential medicines whose prices are controlled
India has capped the prices of 36 drugs, including those used to treat infections and diabetes, in its latest move to make essential medicines more affordable, a senior official of the country's drug pricing authority told Reuters on Friday.
If people can lobby me for making changes in policies that goes against the country's interest, I won't keep myself in this position, says the vice chairman of NITI Aayog.
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.
Notwithstanding the fact that the country's pharmaceutical (pharma) pricing regulator has allowed a 12 per cent price increase for medicines listed under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) in 2023, analysts and industry insiders predict that the overall domestic pharma industry will only witness a price hike of 5-6 per cent. This is attributed to higher competitive intensity in the market. Krishnakumar V, executive director and chief operating officer (CEO) of Eris Lifesciences, a domestic-focused pharma company, noted that the NLEM segment experienced growth suppression of around 150 basis points due to price reductions during the January to July period this year.
In a relief to pharma majors, the Delhi high court today held as "illegal and unsustainable" the Centre's decision to put a ceiling on the price of condoms, including the luxury variety.
Abbott India outperformed the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) with a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 23 per cent in February. The domestic market grew at a robust 20 per cent on a low base, primarily led by volume growth and price hikes. Abbott continued to outperform the sector in the anti-diabetic space with a growth of 20 per cent and key brands such as Thyronorm (hypothyroidism), biliary agent Udiliv, insulin Ryzodeg posted robust growth.
With these 18 drugs, the government now has brought in 467 medicines under the price control.
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In 2010, Abbott acquired both the pharmaceutical business of Solvay, which had a presence in India, and Piramal Healthcare Solutions, which was part of Piramal Group.
In May, price growth for drugs was in negative territory at (-)1 per cent
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