AKCDA dismay over new drug pricing policy

KOCHI: Fearing that the new drug pricing policy would hit hard on their margin, the All Kerala Chemists’ andDruggists’ Association (AKCDA) has demanded the Centre to retain the current margins of the medicines, which  has been in vogue for the last three decades.“We have approached the Ministry of Petrochemicals through our apex body- All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists - and demanded the retaining of the margin,” AKCDA secretary Antony Tharian said. “And if the government does not come up with a favourable stand, then the association would be bound to go for agitations,” he said.   The government that has come out with the draft National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy should maintain that the wholesalers got 10 per cent margin and the retailers got 20 per cent of the margin, he said and added that it was understood that there was a proposal to reduce the margin to 8 per cent for wholesalers and 16 per cent to retailers. If the government sticks to the reduced margin, then the loss to the industry could approximately come to around  Rs 1,500 crore. Under the draft National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Policy, the government has tried to fix and regulate prices of 348 essential drugs and their combinations which has increased the basket of controlled drugs compared to de-controlled drugs. The government move to bring  348 drugs in the category of essential drugs is good, he said “but the issue is that when a bulk of the de-controlled drugs are moved into the controlled drugs category, the distributors would loss the market share that would have an adverse impact.” Stating that the AKCDA was not against any policy, he said the association was only demanding the margin to be maintained that was allotted to them as per the Drug Prices Control Order of 1955. “We demand this as only such a  margin could sustain the industry,” Tharian said. “The government should realise that if they reduce the present margin, it will severely affect our existence, which would also lead to a shortage of medicines in the market,”he said.