March 29, 2022
Santanu Sen’s Special Mention on the impending hike in prices of essential drugs from April 2022
Sir, the prices of essential medicines, including pain killers and antibiotics, are set to go up from April, 2022, with the Government allowing an increase of over 10 per cent for the scheduled drugs. India’s Drug Pricing Authority, on 25th March, allowed a price hike of 10.7 per cent for the scheduled drugs which are under price control. This is the highest price hike allowed. Over 800 drugs, under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), will see a price rise from April and even few drugs in this List are used for severely ill Covid patients. The Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers urged our Government to allow this price hike. But, it will be a huge burden to the common people at large. As unlike Bengal, patients need to purchase almost all the medicines prescribed and there is no “Fair Price Medicine Shops” concept anywhere outside Bengal, many patients will be forced to discontinue their courses
due to price hike leading to serious health hazards which will be a burden as a whole to our nation too. The Government must take up this issue seriously.
