Prices of 886 medicines slashed: Paswan

The prices of these 886 medicines have been reduced by paring margins of wholesalers and retailers.

The government on Tuesday released a list of 886 medicines, whose prices have been reduced by paring margins of wholesalers and retailers.

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As per the new guidelines, wholesalers will get 15 per cent margin while retailers will 35 per cent over the cost of manufacturing of generic medicines, Minister of Chemicals and Fertiliser Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters.

The medicines covered are anti-diabetic drugs, anti-biotics, cough syrups, pain killers as well as those used during surgical operations for the cure of infectious diseases and for the treatment of hyper tension.

"Medicines manufactured on or after October 2 may take four-six weeks to reach the retail counters," Paswan said, adding that a new system of factoring all local taxes in the MRP of medicines has already come into effect from October 2.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority would continue to fix the price of schedules formulation without local taxes and manufacturers would have to add the element of local taxes to arrive at the MRP.

The Minister said a new Act, known as Drugs (Prices Regulation and Control) Act is proposed to be enacted to have effective control on prices, production, distribution and supply of medicines.

This is the first part in the series (list of 886 medicines) and subsequent additions would be brought with information on more such medicines.