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Sometimes IN 2018…
- The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had capped heparin’s ceiling price sometime in 2018. However, there have been instances of shortage of this drug during the pandemic, according to the drug pricing regulator.
Why?
- The cost of API has increased drastically, according to pharma companies. APIs are crucial elements in drug production as they give medicines their therapeutic effect.
HOW MUCH INCREASE IN PRICE OF API?
- Since September 2018, the price of this API has shot up 211 per cent. With the maximum price that companies can charge for the drug fixed, but the API costs rising, they claimed it had become unviable to continue manufacturing and selling the drug in India.
- Therefore, the shortage in the market.
NPPA ALLOWS HIKE IN PRICE…
- India’s drug pricing regulator has allowed pharmaceutical companies to increase the ceiling price of essential medicine heparin by 50 percent until December 31.
- This may only be the first of several drugs to get a price hike as the country tries to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak here as the nationwide lockdown and the ‘China’ factor takes its toll on India’s pharmaceutical industry.
WHAT POWERS DID NPPA USE TO INCREASE PRICE?
- NPPA used extraordinary emergency powers provided to it under paragraph 19 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013.
- This provision allows for the regulator to, fix the ceiling or retail prices of any drug regardless of whether they were under or eligible for price control under normal circumstances.
- It also allows NPPA to increase or decrease their prices irrespective of the annual wholesale price index of that year.
WHAT IS HEPARIN AND WHY IS IT ESSENTIAL?
- Heparin is a blood thinner that has long been used in patients vulnerable to blood clots in their legs, lungs, heart or other body parts. It is used to reduce their risk of heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary embolism.
- Several patients with critical illnesses, including those requiring kidney dialysis, are given the drug.
- During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare included the drug in its clinical management guidelines for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in the ICU.
WHAT ROLE DOES CHINA HAVE TO PLAY IN THE AVAILABILITY OF HEPARIN?
- The heparin sodium API for the injections made in India majorly comes from China. Industry bodies say there are not many alternative manufacturers for the API, especially in India.
- WHAT ROLE DOES CHINA HAVE TO PLAY IN THE AVAILABILITY OF HEPARIN? This is the case with several APIs used in India’s pharma industry. The country heavily relies on China for various APIs used to make crucial antibiotics and vitamins.
- According to industry bodies, even the API and other key ingredients for popular painkiller paracetamol are imported from China.
- In the last three-six months, prices of APIs from China have gone up 20-35 per cent.
MOST APIS COME FROM WUHAN…
- This was around the time that Wuhan in China, from where these APIs were mostly imported, was under a Covid-19 lockdown.
IS THIS BECAUSE OF INDIA’S TENSIONS WITH CHINA?
- Not exactly…!!! According to one industry association, the spike in API costs during the pandemic are also in part the aftermath of the lockdown in Wuhan. Chinese firms took a hit when they had to shut their factories temporarily or were facing difficulties in exporting their APIs during their lockdown. Some of the hikes in API costs are because of such firms trying to recover the costs they endured from this impact, said the association.
EXTENT OF INDIA’S DEPENDENCE ON CHINA
- Of the over $3.5 billion worth of ingredients that Indian drug-makers imported to manufacture several essential medicines in 2018-19, China catered to around 68 per cent.
- This means that a snag in the supply chain from China could disrupt the availability of medicines made in India.
- It could also hit the availability of medicines in other countries that import from India as well.
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