In a strong rebuke of the Union government’s policies, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, October 21, condemning the 50 per cent hike in the prices of essential medicines. She called the price increase an “anti-people move” that would cause significant hardship to the common people.
Banerjee urged the Prime Minister to reconsider the decision, highlighting that these medicines are crucial for treating life-threatening diseases such as tuberculosis, asthma and thalassemia.
Expressing concern over its impact on state budgets, particularly in states like Bengal that offer free healthcare, Banerjee stressed that the price increase would further burden the common people. She called on the PM to instruct the concerned ministry to reverse the hikes.
The government’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)—which is responsible for regulating market prices of essential medicines—invoked its extraordinary powers as detailed in Paragraph 19 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO), 2013 on October 8 to increase the maximum retail prices of 11 scheduled formulations of eight essential drugs by 50 per cent.
The NPPA said in a statement that the increase was approved in “the larger public interest to ensure continued availability of these drugs”. Several pharmaceutical companies had asked the government to increase the prices because of an increase in the prices of the active pharmaceutical ingredients, increase in production costs or change in exchange rates (components of some of the drugs need to be imported).
The 11 formulations of the eight medicines whose ceiling prices were increased by 50 per cent are:
Atropine: Injection for treating certain poisonings, reducing saliva and fluids in the respiratory tract during surgery and treating slow heartbeat in emergency rooms
Benzylpenicillin: Injection in powder form for treating several bacterial infections including pneumonia, diphtheria and syphilis
Cefadroxil: Tablets for treating bacterial infections of the skin, throat, urinary tract, etc.
Desferroxamine: Injection in powder form for treating iron overload in people with thalassemia
Lithium: Tablet for treating several mental illnesses like mania and bipolar disorder
Pilocarpine: Used in droplet form for treating eye conditions such as glaucoma
Streptomycin: Powder formulations for treating various bacterial infections, including tuberculosis
Salbutamol: Two tablet and one respirator solution for relieving respiratory symptoms in patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
