Medicine Price Hike: Common people are going to get another shock of inflation from 1st April. Now customers will have to shell out more for medicines. From April 1, 2023, the price of medicines ranging from pain killers to antibiotics and fever etc. is going to increase by 12 percent (Medicine Price Hike). The government has decided to increase the prices of these medicines after the change in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI).
Drugs will become costlier by 12 percent
This decision of the government will have a direct impact on the lives of the common people. This is another big blow to the people already troubled by inflation. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the regulator that fixes the prices of medicines, has told about this that there has been a big change in the Wholesale Price Index in the country. In such a situation, it has affected the prices of medicines and due to this, the prices of many common medicines are going to increase by 12.12 percent.
It is worth noting that drug companies have been demanding to increase the prices of medicines in view of rising inflation for a long time. It is worth noting that this decision of NPPA will directly affect the medical bills of the people.
Prices of more than 800 medicines will increase
According to the report published in Economic Times, the prices of more than 800 essential medicines have been increased. This includes Pain Killers Medicine Price Hike, antibiotics and medicines used in the treatment of heart diseases. Earlier last year, NPPA had increased the prices of medicines by 10.7 per cent considering the WPI.
How the price of medicines is decided-
The prices of medicines are revised by the drug regulator i.e. National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) at the beginning of every financial year i.e. on 1 April. These prices are fixed on the basis of last year’s Wholesale Price Index ie WPI. Follows the rule of clause 16 of the Drug Price Control Order 2013 to fix the price of the drug. Based on this, new prices of medicines are implemented at the beginning of every new financial year.
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