Prices of 348 essential drugs to be controlled

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday responded to the Supreme Court’s concern over spiralling prices of essential medicines and promised to make all-out efforts to put under strict price control regime all the 348 drugs included in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2011.

A bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya had, in the last hearing, expressed concern over the shrinking list of medicines under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) and had sought the Centre’s response on bringing NLEM medicines under price control regime.

The government admitted that more than 300 drugs were under DPCO in the early 1980s which was subsequently reduced to 140 in 1987. At present, prices of only 74 bulk drugs and formulations containing any of these scheduled drugs are under price control regime, it said. Once a medicine is brought under DPCO, it cannot be sold at a price higher than that fixed by the government.

The ministry of health and family welfare had promised in an affidavit, “It is the considered view of the respondents that to make affordable healthcare a reality, all the medicines included in the NLEM, 2011 need to be brought within the ambit of price control, considering that cost of medicines constitutes over 60% of the total cost of healthcare.”