Prices of various leading drug brands will come down by up to 80 per cent thanks to the newly-approved National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy but at the same time it will hurt investment sentiments in the country's pharmaceutical sector, according to industry bodies.
Sharad Pawar says final draft will go to Cabinet before Tuesday.
It will bring 348 essential drugs under price control.
Accepts GoM's final recommendations without changes, say sources
The pharmaceutical companies may suffer sales loss of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) if the government's span of control increases, as proposed in the new pricing policy for the medicines, a section of the industry said on Monday.
Hit by the new drug pricing policy and regulatory interventions, growth rate of the Rs 72,069-crore Indian pharmaceutical market has slowed down to 9.8 per cent in 2013 as compared to 16.6 per cent in 2012, says a report.