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Fall in prices of 886 generic drugs

Special Correspondent

New Delhi: The Government has released the first list of 886 generic medicines on which the pharmaceuticals industry has reduced margins, leading to price cuts. The trade margins are fixed at 15 per cent for wholesalers and 35 per cent for retailers, leading to price reduction ranging from 0.2 to 74 per cent.

Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said this is the first list of such medicines on which the industry has voluntarily fixed margins.

The list includes formulations such as anti-diabetes drugs, painkillers, cough medications and hypertension drugs. Widely used formulations such as citrizine, paracetamol, cefadroxil and amoxycillin are also in the list. The industry agreed to fix margins on generic drugs and print the maximum retail price inclusive of the margins.

The decision to bring down margins was taken after a dialogue was initiated between the Government and the industry on the proposed new pharmaceutical policy.

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Fall in prices of 886 generic drugs

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