Essential drug price rise hits patients

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

The price rise of essential drugs has hit scores of patients hard across the state. Some of the drugs which have seen an increase in cost are paracetamol, metformin, clopidogrel, levothyroxine, carbamazepine and diltiazem.

These drugs are used to bring down fever and sugar levels while others are meant for heart patients and those who suffer from seizures. Mohammad Javed, a pharmacist, said he started noticing the prices of certain drugs going up in late April.

“Many of them are essential drugs, such as metacartin which is used to treat metabolic processes,” he said. Iqbal Ahmed Mulla, who is diabetic, said he goes through 60 metformin (500 mg) tablets in a month. “I take Glycomet twice a day. I can manage with the modest price increase, but I think poorer people will be affected more. Maybe the government should provide a subsidy or some other kind of concession for them,” he said.

Thyroid tablets dearer

A hypothyroidism patient, who did not wish to be named, said that she remembered levothyroxine tablets being much cheaper in the past. “I have been taking levothyroxine for several years. I was prescribed the Thyronorm brand, which I get for Rs193.05 per 120 tablets (75 mg). I noticed it increasing over the years because at one point it used to cost Rs160,” she said.

She added that if patients of hypothyroidism don’t take their medicine on time, it can cause them to develop other complications. “I have high blood pressure, which is related to my thyroid problem. If I don’t take my tablets for five days, my blood pressure shoots up above 200 – 150 or so,” she said.

She asked if tuberculosis medication can be given free of cost to the needy, then why can’t other essential drugs be subsidised. “Levothyroxine should come with a subsidy,” she added. B David, a public health activist, said that democratic protests had brought down prices of essential drugs in the past and could do so in the future.

“Thanks to protests by Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) and Lawyers Collective who led the agitation against the high price of an anti-viral Hepatitis C drug, the price came down from Rs52,000 per dose to under Rs500,” he said.

Drug manufacturers had been demanding a 20 per cent hike in prices of more than 850 “scheduled” drugs. They reasoned that the prices of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) had been shooting up since the outbreak of Covid due t o s u p p ly ch a i n interruptions.