Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2024-25 on July 23. Ahead of the Union Budget 2024 announcement, industry leaders are expecting new policy reforms, price relaxation, GST reduction, and announcement of major schemes.
In April this year, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced that there would be no increase in the prices of essential medicines for this fiscal year due to negligible growth in wholesale price-based inflation. How the Union Budget 2024 announcement will affect the prices of medicines?
Dr. Sujit Paul, Group CEO, Zota Healthcare Ltd. told Financial Express.com a number of variables impacting the pharmaceutical sector will eventually cause the price of prescription medications to rise.
“First, we anticipate an increase in the cost of drugs that significantly rely on imported Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). Since changes in import prices have a direct effect on manufacturing costs, which also cover a broad range of specialty and in-demand pharmaceuticals. Secondly, drugs that are freshly developed and patented come with significant Research, development and production costs,” Dr. Paul said.
Changes in production costs or regulatory changes may result in an increase in the price of certain medications, he said.
“Biologics and advanced therapeutics are two other categories that are susceptible to price rise since they require complex technologies and advanced production techniques. We believe that the cost of medications that depend on imported APIs, newly produced pharmaceuticals, patents, biologics, and advanced therapies will increase as the industry works through these difficulties,” Dr. Paul told Financial Express.com.
Meanwhile, Dr Shuchin Bajaj, Founder & Director Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals informed that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) enforced a slight increase in the prices of essential medicines starting April 1, 2024.
“This adjustment, reflecting a 0.00551% rise in the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for scheduled formulations, affects several drugs. Painkillers such as Diclofenac, Ibuprofen, Mefenamic acid, Paracetamol, and Morphine are now more expensive. Similarly, prices have increased for anti-TB medicines like Amikacin, Bedaquiline, and Clarithromycin, as well as anticonvulsants like Clobazam, Diazepam, and Lorazepam,” Dr. Bajaj told Financial Express.com.
Additionally, the Centre has fixed higher prices for drugs treating diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, bacterial infections, and allergies, he said.
However, prices for many commonly prescribed diabetes drugs, including metformin, linagliptin, and sitagliptin, have been stabilized at ₹15 to ₹20 per tablet.
“Consequently, while some prices have increased, others have been reduced or stabilized. Going forward, we expect the budget to focus on pharmaceutical pricing and further reduce the costs of essential drugs to make them more affordable for a mass population,” Dr. Bajaj told Financial Express.com.
