Drug Prices Hit Common Masses
Rameez Makhdoomi
Medicine or drug is the basic need of every human to tackle the various diseases and ailments. They give us often immediate relief from suffering caused by the disease . Medicines are chemicals or compounds used to cure, halt, or prevent disease; ease symptoms; or help in the diagnosis of illnesses. Advances in medicines have enabled doctors to cure many diseases and save lives.As a matter of fact , The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority of India had earlier announced a 10.7 per cent hike in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the calendar year 2021 over the corresponding period in 2020.With this hike, the cost of about 800 scheduled medicines on the National List of Essential Medicines will increase by 10.7 per cent since the beginning of this financial year.The common man on ground zero is worst hit by this steep rise in the price of medicine .Nazir Ahmad, a commoner stated ” The recent steep hike in about 800 essential medicine is bound to break the back of common man. In a place like Kashmir majority of humans are dependent on different medicines on daily basis .Many depend on costly medicines to treat their ailments. Further increase in these prices means terrible things for many households . We are hopeful that soon the prices of these medicines would be reduced .”per NPPA’s order, the price of medicines that are used to treat fever, heart diseases, infections, skin diseases, high blood pressure and anaemia will be increased from April 1. These include medicines like Paracetamol, Phenobarbitone, Phenytoin Sodium, Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride and Metronidazole.The demand of the majority of the population is that the prices of medicines should be within their reach and especially in the times when the pandemic has broken back of many people both economically as well as mentally.Recently in Lok Sabha Congress member Dean Kuriakose raised the issue of prices of lifesaving drugs.“Prices of essential medicines including painkillers, antibiotics, anti-infectives are set to go up from April with the government allowing an increase of over 10 per cent for the scheduled drugs,” Kuriakose said. He said that India’s drug pricing authority on Friday allowed a price hike of 10.7 per cent for scheduled drugs, which are under price control.“This is the highest price hike allowed. Over 800 drugs under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) will see a price rise from April,” he said.One hopes we will enter an era in our country wherein the prices of essential medicines or drugs are within the reach of pocket of common man.
