Indian SMEs keep pill prices under check

As per the latest findings by Health Action International (HAI), a non-government body, Ciproflaxin, a medicine commonly available in 93 countries is apparently offered at the cheapest rate in India by Bayer, the original manufacturer of the drug.

India is 22nd when it comes to ciprofloxacin’s generic equivalents, though the country is renowned world over for its low cost manufacturing strengths. According to leading industry analysts Bayer is deliberately keeping the prices lower given that there are large number of generic competitors of medicine in the country.

According to T S Jaishankar Chairman, Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries, the presence of large & small and medium drug enterprises is compelling the innovator company to keep the prices minimum in India.

The medicine which no longer enjoys patent rights can be freely manufactured and sold by generic drug makers all across the world. HAI’s effort was to highlight the high price of medicines though it’s no longer controlled by patent protection.

Another startling revelation says that though lowest priced medicines are manufactured in India, yet the high –tax rates levied by the government makes it high-priced. India ranks 22nd in term of low-price band and in fact its Indian products that are sold at much cheaper rates in other countries.

HAI had recently collected the price a patient had to shell out for Ciprofloxacin 500 mg tablets, both for the original product made by Bayer and the lowest priced generic equivalent available at the pharmacy.

The price of the original product was found to the highest in Colombia, over 200 times the price in the five Asian countries, whereas the prices of generics was found to be the lowest- a difference of almost 20,000 percent.

The price of Bayers’s Cipro for a 7-day treatment course was around $3.99 in India, while the price of the generic equivalent is just $1.62. In comparison, Bayer charges $131.47 in Colombia.

HAI’s endeavor was to check out how reasonably priced the essential medicines are and the reasons for high prices, poor availability, developmental and implementation policies and strategies and measuring the impact so to ensure that patients gain from lower prices and improved availability.