New Delhi: Drug major Cipla has asked the Narendra Modi government at the Centre to allow price hike of asthma and other respiratory drugs, citing a 300 per cent increase in production cost, News18 has learnt.
In a letter written by the Mumbai-based pharma firm to the country’s drug price regulator, National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA), the company has highlighted the “astronomical” price hike in manufacturing of drugs widely used for the treatment of Asthma.
NPPA — the drug price and availability watchdog — falls under the purview of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.
According to the letter, titled, ‘Request for an increase in prices of respiratory formulations due to substantial price hike of propellant P227’, the production of these medicines is becoming expensive.
“We wish to bring your attention towards the astronomical price hike in the propellant 227 which is being used in many of our respiratory products,” the company said in the letter dated September 2, seen by News18.
“Due to shortage and unavailability from the manufacturers, its price has seen an increase of approximately over 300 percent which is gravely impacting our production cost,” it reads.
The propellants, as explained by Cipla in the letter, help to develop a proper vapor pressure due to which medical products reach deep lungs and help cure asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) and other respiratory diseases.
News18 has reached out to Cipla for an official comment. However, the query hadn’t received any response at the time of publishing this article.
What is the role of propellants?
In a letter, the company has given the background for the impact of price hike on the production.
In a subhead, it explains the use of “propellants in pharmaceuticals”. “After Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) phase out, there were two propellants that were made available for the pharmaceutical industry and for medical purposes due to their environmental acceptance and low toxicity.”
The company added, “Pharmaceutical Metered Dose Inhalers (MDI) contain approximately 95-99 percent of the propellant. This helps to develop a proper vapour pressure within the Asthma container to provide the force that expels the medical product from the container to the human lungs through the respiratory tract.”
“Majority of the medical products which expel due to such propellants are mainly bronchodilators, inhaled corticosteroids and their combinations which are widely used for the treatment of Asthma.”
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