Cancer, AIDS drugs may come under price control

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New Delhi, Dec 9: The government has asked the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Aiims) to identify AIDS and cancer drugs that might be brought under price control.

The Sandhu Committee on drug price control has argued that the existing two economic criteria — of mass consumption and absence of sufficient competition — for price control would not automatically bring a large number of critical care drugs under price control.

Both the 1994 drug policy — which is now operational — and pharma policy 2002 — which is stuck in the Supreme Court — broadly apply these two economic criteria. The two policies differ only in terms of the thresholds specified.

The government is, for the first time, planning to add a non-economic criteria for price control on drugs, that is, the therapeutic use of the drug. A senior official told FE that there was a need to include cancer and AIDS drugs under price control, as high prices might add to the cost of managing these diseases.

Control on price of anti-HIV (anti-retrovirus) drugs would come in handy for NACO to reduce the cost of its AIDS control programme, now buttressed with a a new component — free drug supply to patients. NACO has been negotiating with domestic majors to procure drugs at prices lower than market prices.

The health ministry and NACO had also proposed to the finance ministry to bring down the cost of AIDS drugs by cutting customs duties for inputs.

The Sandhu Committee, which will come out with its final report in a month or so, does not wish to alter the current premise for price control, as reflected in the existing two economic criteria. “The basic criteria would remain,” said the official. The committee is in the process of preparing a new list of drugs for price control.