Traders in TN demand -One Molecule One Price- for all medicines in the country

Chennai, February 18, 2023 :

The Tiruvarur District Chemists and Druggists Association affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association (TN CDA) wanted the government of Tamil Nadu to urge the Central government for implementing a policy of ‘One Molecule – One Price’ for all the drugs that are made with similar chemical composition.

The traders claim that such a policy will ensure a uniform price for all medicinal products of the same molecule, so price differences can be curtailed.

The office-bearers of the district association has given a letter to the district collector to be forwarded to the chief minister and it contained several demands of the pharma traders with regard to myriad issues being faced by the trader community.

The association led by the former president of the TN CDA called for complete abolition of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) applicable to pharmaceutical formulations so as to enable the pharma industry to reduce the maximum retail prices of popular brands. The GST has increased the MRPs of almost all medicines which are becoming a burden for the people to purchase medicines even for essential circumstances.

They further wanted the government to take immediate steps to stop the illegal sale of medicines by online pharmacies as the traders feel that the main agenda for the corporate companies who run online trade of medicines is to monopolize the pharma market by destroying the small retail stores.   The corporates’ mode of operation is giving advertisements on discounts which is actually misleading the people. As far as a bonafide trader is concerned, unethical discount is not logically practical, hence the government should intervene in this matter immediately.
 
“Government is fixing the selling price of medicines taking into account the prices of raw materials and other production costs. Then scope for a huge difference between the MRP and the manufacturing cost is nil,” they mentioned in the letter given to the CM.
 
The traders informed the chief minister that, as a matter of fact, the mushrooming of e-pharmacies in every nook and corner of cities and urban areas will create a shortage in the availability of medicines in rural areas and villages. If conventional medicine retail shops in village areas are shut down, the poor people villages will be the worst lot in availing medicines, so it is the duty of the government to prevent such a situation and protect the brick and mortar pharmacies.
 
Citing the huge price differences of the products sold in Jan Aushadhi Stores of the central government and in the regular pharmacies, the traders put a pertinent question to the government that if the same molecule is used for products for both the pharmacies, why the manufacturers are allowed to fix an abnormal price for the market sales. This kind of overcharging of prices by manufacturing companies leads to unhealthy business in the healthcare industry and it becomes a big challenge to the common man. Further this double-pricing by the manufacturers leads to various misappropriation and false propaganda by the e-pharmacies.
 
The district association wanted in the letter to the chief minister that, as a measure to stop the corruption jointly committed by the industry and the e-pharmacies, the government should come out with a policy to save the public and the pharmaceutical trade by declaring ‘One Molecule – One Price’ for all medicinal products. PharmaBiz