Over-regulation of prices is always detrimental to the patient as it restricts the industry's ability to invest in developing new drugs and has a negative impact on accessibility of medicines, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Limited chairman K Sathish Reddy said today.
Addressing shareholders at the annual general meeting here, he urged policy-makers to take a holistic view of price control for the benefit of the industry as well as the patient.
Reddy said when arbitrary control continues to squeeze prices, they may also end up driving these services and products out of the market leaving the patient as the net loser.
"In recent years, pricing control has become a cause for concern. Our policy-makers tend to look at affordable healthcare through a single lens price control on drugs and medical devices," he said.
Affordable healthcare is a goal which pharmaceutical companies wish to achieve but the responsibility should not be laid on their shoulders, Reddy added.
"Regulatory benchmark is now higher than ever, which creates an impact on the cost of medicines and price control, and achieving the right balance between access and affordability becomes all the more testing for the industry," he elaborated.
The ultimate fallout was that the companies would becomeselective about the markets they enter, he said.
Some of the plans such as the reference pricing method, which was practised in Europe and some emerging markets like South Africa, may deter companies from launching their products in those markets because the pricing may not be viable in business terms, Reddy said.
Industry bodies like the Indian Pharmaceutical Association were reaching out to the major regulatory authorities to facilitate a structural shift in quality standards, he said.
The Indian pharmaceutical sector, despite all the present challenges, is poised for exponential growth in the next 10 years, he said adding Dr Reddy's was gearing up to ride this wave.
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