NPAA must fix some maximum trade-margin on generic medicines whereby there may be a reasonable difference between their ex-factory prices and MRPs. Thereafter generic medicines should be publicised giving comparative prices of popular brands of different companies with the generic medicines having same salt. This will make prices of branded medicines sharply reduced. NPAA should also look into pricing medicines in India where same salt is marketed by different companies in varying prices. Antibiotic ‘Ofloxacin’ has Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for 10 tablets of Rs 314.92, Rs 88.00 and Rs 55.00 for same medicine marketed by three different drug-manufacturers. There are numerous such medicines where drug-manufacturers are cashing their name by earning huge profits.
The Union government should ensure that imported medicines like ‘Janumet’ which are available in strips like of 14 tablets may be especially packed for Indian market in strips of ten.
Many a time the name of medicine is printed only once on a complete strip of tablets/capsules, thereby causing great confusion when the tablets/ capsules under the printed name are consumed. Authorities should make it compulsory to print name of the medicine on complete strip over every tablet/ capsule. Moreover it should also be compulsory to print/emboss name of the medicine individually on each tablet/ capsule.
