Price control may hit multinational pharmas

The government’s move to cap prices of patented drugs may hit multinational pharma companies like Pfizer, GlaxoSmith-kline and Merck hard, according to some analysts.

The decision is expected to hit global drug makers, which are spending millions of dollars in researching new drugs, said an analyst with a city-based brokerage house on the condition of anonymity.

Affordable access to life-saving drugs has been an issue in the country. Price negotiation would hurt MNCs the most as patentable drugs are monopolised by them, while domestic companies are yet to bring to the market a new molecule, said another pharma analyst.

Last Friday, pharma secretary Dilsher Singh Kalha had said, “The government is planning to control the prices of costly patented drugs with a view to making them affordable to the poor. A committee has already finalised a proposal and we will put it out in the public domain in a month.”