Price Cut on Critical Medicines Soon as Health Minister Calls Meeting with Pharma Lobbies

The price cut on several critical medicines may happen soon as health minister Mansukh Mandaviya is expected to meet top manufacturers and pharma lobbies to finalise the list of drugs set to go under trade margin rationalisation (TMR), News18 has learnt.

“The minister is slated to meet the industry on July 26 on the subject of trade margin rationalisation on non-scheduled drugs,” said the health ministry official.

By fixing trade margins, the government is planning to bring down the prices of critical drugs. Trade margins are the difference between the price to trade for manufacturers and the price to patients as the maximum retail price (MRP).

News18 had earlier reported that the government is planning to reduce the price of drugs used for the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic kidney diseases.

However, the trade margin is likely to be rationalised in a phased manner and may first pick cardio or diabetes medicines in the upcoming round.

“The meeting will be convened in the minister’s office,” the official said while adding that “separately, another set of discussions is also going on if the announcement of drug-price cut could be announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Independence Day.”

“However, it is still under the preliminary discussions and nothing has been finalised so far,” he added.

The drug price watchdog, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), has been working on the TMR plan for the past several months.

In 2018-19, the NPPA had put a cap on trade margins of 42 select non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines. Minister Mandaviya had said in the Lok Sabha that the move reduced up to 90% of the MRP of 526 brands of these medicines.

According to the study on TMR analysis conducted by NPPA, a trader’s margin moves higher with the price of a tablet.

The NPPA data showed in the case of medicines priced above Rs 100 per tablet, 8% of such medicines have trade margins of 200% to 500%, 2.7% have margins around 500%-1,000%, and 1.48% have more than 1,000% margins.

“The study conducted by NPPA has helped the government in deciding the TMR in a more methodical and scientific manner. The government will proceed after consulting with the industry in the upcoming meeting,” the official explained.

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