Furoped, used to drain the body of water, is used in babies with heart ailments to reduce the load on the heart
Following furore over the shortage of a life-saving medicine for babies born with heart defects, government has decided to revise the price cap on the drug by almost 8 times.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority in a full meeting on Thursday decided to increase the per unit price of furoped from 29 p per ml to Rs 2.60 p. A drug that drains the body of water, furoped (Furosemide, more commonly known as lasix) is prescribed in babies to reduce the load on a defective heart.
In an order last November, the price of Furoped was reduced by 92% with the MRP coming down from Rs 106 to Rs 10. After Thursday’s decision, the price of a 30 ml bottle would come to about Rs 78. The official notification however may still take a few days, sources say.
In an order last November, the price of Furoped was reduced by 92% with the MRP coming down from Rs 106 to Rs 10. After Thursday’s decision, the price of a 30 ml bottle would come to about Rs 78.
Before the November price revision which was undertaken by NPPA without access to market data, the monthly sales of the drug was to the tune of approximately Rs 30- 35 lakh. According to the authority’s own estimates, supplies dwindled to about 40% in the aftermath of that decision. The company in its submission to NPPA had told that at Rs 10 per unit the product was commercially unviable. It was never officially withdrawn but supplies became patchy, company officials admit.
The order issued on November 23, 2017 admitted: “Whereas NPPA also sought information from the various Government Procurement Agencies under Central Government and States and State Medical Services Corporation, as it is necessary to fix ceiling prices of scheduled formulations. Accordingly, in the absence of the relevant market based data in the Pharmatrac report of AIOCD- AWACS, it has been decided in the Authority Meeting held in the NPPA on 19/9/2017 to fix the ceiling prices of remaining scheduled formulations on the basis of procurement prices.”
Thursday’s decision to up the ceiling price hugely has exposed the slipshod methods adopted by the apex drug price regulator in arriving at price caps for drugs and may in future be used as a precedent by other companies to challenge its decisions.
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