Health News

Prices Of Analgesics, Antibiotics, And Other Essential Drugs Are To Rise From April 1st

The prices of essential drugs and lifesaving medicines are set to increase by over 12% from the beginning of the coming month. This hike will encompass 384 essential drugs in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).

These drugs include – analgesics, antibiotics, and cardiac medicine. Recently, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) announced that the price rise is occurring due to wholesale price inflation – based on the provisions of the DPCO (Drugs Price Control Order). In comparison, the last year’s change in WPI was 10.7%, while the 2021 WPI increase was 0.53%. 

Further, the prices of 25 drugs have been fixed – as per the DPCO, 2013. These include - Camylofin Dihydrochloride and Paracetamol tablets – ₹5.53, and Itraconazole capsules – ₹20.72.

The fixing of prices is to affect over 800 essential medicines and medical devices. 

Pharmaceutical companies will be issuing the altered prices through Form-V. These companies include – Abbott, Alembic, Aristo-Pharma, Cipla, Glenmark Pharma, Lupin, Mankind, Sun Pharma, Torrent, Wockhardt, and Zydus Healthcare, among others.

Of note, this is the second year in a row that the price rise of scheduled drugs will be higher than non-scheduled drugs.