Govt Could Cap Prices Of Antibiotics: Report

New Delhi, 30  Sept 2019:

After capping prices of cancer drugs, the government could rationalise costs for antibiotics as well, Business Standard reports.

Many antibiotics already have a price ceiling and this could be extended to the entire segment, the report said.

An expert committee will advise the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to examine the pricing in the antibiotics segment, the report added.

“More than any segment of drugs, it would be beneficial to look at antibiotics,” a senior government official told the paper.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.

Pharma industry players told Business Standard that the price cap was likely to be restricted to the non-branded generics antibiotics, since the branded generics had a trade margin.

“As a manufacturer, it is our discretion to fix the minimum retail price for non-scheduled drugs, while the prices for scheduled drugs are fixed by the pricing regulator, and then the trade margins are standard,” RK Baheti, a director at Alembic Pharmaceuticals, told the publication.

The government has so far not discussed the proposal with the industry, the report said.

Rationalising margins in the non-branded generics segment will be beneficial for companies selling branded antibiotics. But, the move could impact hospital margins as manufacturers sometimes sell antibiotic injectibles to them at a discount.

“If trade margins are rationalised, it would not impact the realisations of pharma companies, but may affect hospital margins,” Ameesh Masurekar, a director at AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS market research firm told the newspaper. Moneycontrol