I am a patient of diabetes & hypertension , having undergone angioplasty about two & half years back. My monthly bill for medicines is around Rs. 2000.00. While living on pension I am always on the look-out to save on the cost of medicines. Previously my local chemist used to give me discount of 5-7% as a special favor. Then came online pharmacies which are offering discounts from 10-20% on prescription medicines. So I started purchasing medicines online since last six months. Sometime past my attention was drawn towards a new site CashKaro, which offers fabulous cash backs, if one visits the site of retailer / online pharmacy through the link provided on the site of CashKaro. I tried & placed order for medicines through the link provided on the site of CashKaro & look,I got the following discounts & cash back.
Discount……..20%
Cash back on invoice value…..20%
So effectively I got discount of 36% on the medicines I purchased. It was quite a good relief for a man with limited means.
The story does not end here. Recently while walking through market in other part of the city, I noticed a shop dealing in generic medicines. Out of curiosity I entered the shop and inquired about the price of medicine Okacet-L (A Cipla product), which I had purchased from the local chemist a few days back. To my surprise this generic medicine shop charged Rs.10.00 for the strip of 10 tablets, whereas the local chemist had charged Rs.48.00 , the MRP printed on the strip of 10 tablets.
The above raised serious doubts in my mind about the price mark up policies of the pharma companies, as neither the online pharmacies nor the generic medicine shop might be selling medicines on loss & it prompted me to surf the internet about the price mark up policies of pharma companies & whether there is any regulation in place. With my limited resources I could gather as follows.
I could not find any regulations on the price mark up of the generic medicines. However Govt.Of India has launched an initiative for providing generic medicines at reasonable prices through govt. owned pharma companies, namely Jan Aushadhi. The medicines in this programme are generally priced at 10% of the comparable medicines available at the usual chemist shops. The outlets of Jan Aushadhi medicines are very limited.
From the above it can be safely deduced that in case of generic medicines the price mark up ( MRP) by the pharma companies is usually about 500-700% to the ex-factory price. Thus a grand loot by the middle man ( stockists , wholesalers & retailer chemists) of the general public is going on & poor people in villages ,small towns and even in big cities are being to pay the highly inflated prices through their nose.
I fail to understand the benefits the pharma companies drive by this high price mark up. On the other hand, by this high price mark up of generic medicines, the pharma companies are doing disservice to the nation. I request the pharma companies to voluntarily adopt reasonable price mark up policies to end the grand loot of the common poor people, least the govt. may impose stiff regulations in this regard.
