Drug Price Control Limit At Rs 25 Crore

The government unveiled details of a new pharmaceuticals policy on Friday that aims to reduce state control on drug pricing and encourage research. But industry officials accorded it a tepid welcome, saying it did not go far enough.

Under the new policy the government will fix prices of only those bulk drugs whose formulations have an annual turnover of Rs 25 crore and in which a single firm making a formulation has a market share of 50 per cent or more.

But it will also fix prices of formulations with a turnover of Rs 10-25 crore if a single formulator has a market share of 90 per cent or more.

The earlier thresholds were Rs 4 crore if any formulator had more than a 50 per cent market share or Rs 1 crore if a formulator had a 90 per cent or more market share.

The new measures are expected to reduce by half the number of drugs whose prices the government now determines, currently at 74. But Friday's announcement did not say which drugs would be on the pruned list, information the industry is keenly awaiting.