Drug price regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has turned down the request from major pharma firms including Eli Lilly and Biocon to increase the price of insulin used for diabetes treatment.
"Major manufacturers and importers of diabetic drug insulin such as Eli Lilly, Cadila, Lupin, Biocon had applied for upward revision in the retail price of insulin," said the drug price regulator.
However, keeping in mind the interest of large number of consumers, the prices of insulin formulations have been maintained at the existing level "by suitably adjusting the profit margin to ensure abundant availability of insulin formulations at reasonable prices," it added.
Currently, insulin is available at a price range of Rs 160.26 for a 10ml vial and Rs 482.33 for a 3ml pre-filled pen.
On July 19, 2012, the NPPA had fixed prices of 154 different drug formulation packs including vitamin C and its derivatives.
According to the NPPA, drug formulations containing vitamin C and its derivatives had been revised on suo-moto basis to pass on the benefits of reduction in bulk drug prices to consumers as manufacturers had failed to send the price revision application to NPPA within the stipulated time.
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In those cases, the prices have been reduced from 0.12% to 37.76% of the existing price, resulting in lower prices for Vitamin C formulations, which will benefit the consumers, NPPA said.
The decision is likely to impact drug makers like GlaxoSmithKline, Piramal and Pfizer.