Boon to consumers, bane to retailers

Hyderabad: A notice pasted at many medical shops in the city is attracting lot of consumers. The notice says “As per government notification on Drug Price Control Order 2013, the margins of retailers are reduced to 8-10 per cent. So kindly cooperate with us”.

This notice indicates the drastic price control of essential medicines by the Centre. Through this order, MRP (Maximum retail price) is decreased on many essential drugs. Of course it is a boon to common man, but for retailers, it is a big blow. This new Drug Price Control Order, 2013 curtails the medical retailers’ discount offers to the consumers who were getting 10-15 per cent of discounts on medicines.

Meantime with this new order the retailers will face difficulties from medical companies as well as distributors. General secretary of Rangareddy district Chemists and Druggists Association E Harinarayana told “We are not against the government order. Of course it does so much good for the common people. What we required most is some more time to implement the order. Both in Hyderabad and Rangareddy nearly 7,000 to 8,000 retail medical shops are there”.

As the Centre has notified the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013 with effect from May 15th, the prices of 348 drugs which consist of almost 50 per cent of domestic medicines will go down. That means those 348 essential formulations produce 8000 to 8,500 medical products. All these 8,500 products will become cheap with the latest order!

This order is so much beneficial to the consumer, whether it is generic or branded medicine. As the prices get down, some big companies also stepped back from production of essential medicines in view of higher cost implications. Of course some companies are ready to bear the losses as well “, said a medical shop-owner. The manufacturing of essential medicines rates are not matched with the drug prices mentioned in the new order passed by the government recently. Besides low rates of the medicines, the retailers will have only 45 days to sell off their old stocks at current rates.