Industry & Economy
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Pharmaceuticals
Redefine `essential drugs' list: Pharma industry
Deepak Goel
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New Delhi
Feb. 2
In keeping with its opposition to the proposed Drug Policy, the pharma industry has now asked the Government to redefine the list of "essential drugs" contained in the policy draft and weed out what it calls "lifestyle drugs."
Coming together on the platform of FICCI, the pharma industry has opposed the inclusion of "lifestyle drugs" in the list of essential medicines whose prices Government intends to cut down compulsorily.
Questioning the rationale of including lifestyle drugs in the list of essential medicines where price cuts have been proposed, industry has said that these drugs treat lifestyle diseases like lung cancer and diabetes. "Lung cancer may be caused by lifestyle factors like excessive smoking, unlike Malaria where the industry is not against price reduction," said a FICCI official.
The industry chamber is part of the 14-member task force that the Government has formed for debate on drug pricing.
The industry has also argued against the reduction in prices of vitamins, saying that it does not consider these as essential. The Government had come out with a list of medicines, including vitamins, on which it intends reducing the prices, the reductions ranging from 0.29 per cent to 74 per cent.
The industry also says that these drugs are only generics and hence their prices are determined by "huge competitive forces."
A further reduction in prices may force the drug companies to focus on exports rather than on domestic sales, said the FICCI official. "The profit from domestic sales is marginal. It is through exports that these companies make most of their profits," he added.
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