Govt caps price of 6 formulations packs

Government has capped prices of six drug formulations packs, including pain killer Ibuprofen, anti-infective Metronidazole, among others.
Drug firms such as Abbott Healthcare, Ipca Laboratories and Merck would be impacted by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority's (NPPA) move.
The prices of six formulation packs have been fixed/ revised under Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), 2013, NPPA said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the NPPA had capped the prices of 18 formulation packs, including anti-diabetic Metformin HCl tablets, anti-bacterial Ceftriaxone Sodium injection packs and devices among others.
At present, the government caps prices of essential drugs based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment with sales of more than 1 per cent.

In case of non-scheduled formulations companies are allowed to hike prices of medicines by only up to 10 per cent in a year.
The government had notified DPCO, 2013, which covers 680 formulations, effective May 15, 2014, replacing the 1995 order that regulated only 74 bulk drugs.