New Delhi, May 18: Price of patented drugs will be halved as soon as they lose patent protection or are on the verge of going off patent in India, providing much-needed relief to patients, reported Times Now. The move will help streamline the pricing of innovative medicines, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority or NPPA has said, adding that the off-patent price would be capped at 50 per cent of its original cost.

After one year, the drug pricing regulator will take the market data and fix a new price, the notification further said. The move is expected to hit the companies hard as NPPA has taken away the option from them to reduce the prices on their own, company executives feel. Medicine Price Cut: Cost of 651 Essential Drugs Down by 7% From April 2023 As Modi Government Caps Ceiling Prices.

Johnson and Johnson's anti-TB drug Bedaquiline , whose patent will be expiring in July will be the first affected pharma company, according to news reports.

The move is aimed to curb profiteering by pharma companies and provide relief to patients. This gains significance as many drugs in the recent past have gone off patent like the diabetes drugs, making room for cheaper generics. Modi Government To Doctors of Centre-Run Hospitals: Prescribe Generic Medicines Only or Face Strict Action.

It is important to note that the Department of Pharmaceutical (DoP) held several meetings with the stakeholders including the industry representatives before it came out with the notification.

The notification further says that in the case of Fixed dose combinations ( FDC ) where one component is going off-patent the ceiling price will be revised by reducing the present price by 50 per cent.

In case of an innovative drug, not available in India, an expert committee would decided the price-cap. For patented medicines, the policy is yet to be firmed up due to a divergence in views. The government has constituted several committees and discussed multiple methods including negotiations and reference pricing, for evolving a price mechanism in the past.

Experts however are of opinion that the price of patented medicines, even after negotiation, will remain unaffordable for a majority of the population.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 18, 2023 12:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).