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Govt to pare number of price-controlled drugs

The government plans to reduce the number of drugs subject to price control to 31 from 74, an industry source said on Wednesday.

"The government plans to include 18 new drugs in its (price control) list, and remove 61," said the highly placed industry official speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said firms likely to benefit would be Glaxo India and Ranbaxy Laboratories. But Pfizer Ltd, Hoechst Marion Roussel and Novartis India could suffer as key products come under price control.

The source said the draft list, which he said would go before India's federal cabinet soon, would free from price control Glaxo India's key anti-ulcer drug ranitidine.

"The government plans to control prices of only those drugs with annual formulation (ready-to-take medication) sales of more than Rs 200 million and a market share exceeding 50 per cent," the source said.

The government would go by sales figures for the year to March 1999 compiled by the audit firm ORG.

The new policy could come into force by June.

Other drugs to be removed are the anti-infective ciprofloxacin, made by most major Indian drug firms including Ranbaxy Laboratories and Cipla Ltd, and oxytetracycline, an ingredient in Pfizer's Terramycin.

Likely to be brought under control is diphenhydramine, an ingredient in Parke-Davis India Ltd's cough syrup Benadryl; glibenclamide, an ingredient in Hoechst Marion Roussel's anti-diabetes drug Daonil; and diclofenac sodium, the main ingredient in Novartis India's Voveran brand of painkiller.

Also the anti-infective cefotoxime, the key ingredient in Glaxo's Ceftum, the painkiller piroxicam (Pfizer's Dolonex), and the anti-infective ofloxacin (Ranbaxy's Zanocin).

Formulations based on the 31 drugs to be controlled contributed 24 per cent of retail sales in the year to March 1999, the source said.

Glaxo India is a 51 per cent subsidiary of Britain's GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Pfizer is 40 per cent owned by US giant Pfizer Inc, Hoechst is 50.1 per cent owned by Franco-German Aventis and Novartis India is 51 per cent owned by Switzerland's Novartis AG.

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