Medicine prices

After recently allowing a 10% increase in prices of common medicines, the federal government has announced an upward revision in the prices of 94 life-saving medicines on the plea that this will help in ending the long-persisting shortage of these drugs in the market. The government has further justified the move that allowing a rise in prices will help control overcharging and black marketing. It says the former prices were unrealistic and there was a need for rationalisation of prices to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential medicines.

The special assistant to the PM on health says prices had to also be hiked in view of the devaluation of the national currency. According to him, the increase in prices will incentivise manufacturers to make life-saving medicines available to patients. There is one exception, however. The price of Ramsdevir, an experimental medicine used for treating Covid-19 patients, has been reduced from Rs10,873 to Rs8,244. The price of insulin too has been kept unchanged. Insulin shots are essential for chronic diabetics to keep their blood sugar level under control.

If one looks at the whole thing dispassionately, the increase in prices of life-saving drugs is preferable to their non-availability, provided the fresh hike in prices does not make essential medicines go beyond the purchasing power of the common people. We hope that the government has factored in all aspects while fixing medicine prices. The government should, at the same time, keep a strict watch on hoarders and black marketers of medicines. However, the increase in medicine prices would hit the low-income groups the most, so doctors should come to the rescue of patients from this group, for experts say good doctors prescribe few medicines.

We know that inputs from medicine manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers are taken into account while fixing medicine prices, but it remains unclear whether views of patients and their carers also count in the process.