New drug prices in India to be capped by NPPA

In order to keep a lid on the escalating cost of drugs, India's drug price regulator has decided to fix a ceiling price on new drugs aimed at treating HIV, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis and malaria, reports The Pharma Letter's India correspondent.

The regulator, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), has also decided to benchmark the price of the new medicine to the most expensive brand in a particular therapeutic segment, in order to ensure that the price of the new drug does not exceed the most expensive brand in the market.

Asking state governments to actively participate in the move, the regulator has requested states to identify some of the most expensive, commonly used drugs for diseases prevalent in their regions. The NPPA has held that once armed with the data, it would consider bringing these drugs too under the price control ambit.