Hike in prices of essential drugs, formulations stings: IMA Telangana

It is upsetting to hear that the prices of 384 essential drugs and over 1,000 formulations would see a hike of over 11% due to a sharp rise in Wholesale Price Index (WPI), said members of Indian Medical Association (IMA)-Telangana State on Saturday.

It is upsetting to hear that the prices of 384 essential drugs and over 1,000 formulations would see a hike of over 11% due to a sharp rise in Wholesale Price Index (WPI), said members of Indian Medical Association (IMA)-Telangana State on Saturday.

This price hike from April 1 means that consumers will have to shell out more for routine and essential drugs, including painkillers, anti-infection drugs, cardiac drugs and other essential medicines.

“The hike will put a lot of burden on the poor patients’ health as well as their survival. It is the responsibility of both the Central and State governments to ensure the availability and affordability of essential and life-saving medicines for poor people,” president of IMA-Telangana, B.N. Rao said.

IMA-Telangana State chapter has requested the Centre not to take a “hasty decision” for increasing the price of essential medicines.

Honorary secretary of IMA-Telangana J. Vijay Rao said the price increase is the highest since the Drug Price Control Order of 2013 and that this is the second year in a row the WPI is higher than the permitted price hike for non-scheduled formulations.

“Such a drastic hike will distort the price control in place on essential medicines. Therefore, IMA-Telangana State urges the government to intervene in the interest of maintaining the affordability of these drugs. Such back-to-back price surges are undermining the purpose of price fixation of essential medicines and it puts a huge burden on the common man’s health and survival,” he added.