Drop in supplies: Price of a key medicine for children with heart disease

Furoped or Furosemide, commonly known as lasix, is a diuretic prescribed for babies with heart disease. It drains the body fluids to reduce the load on the heart.

The apex drug regulator decided to increase the unit price of Furoped, a drug to save the lives of pediatric heart patients, nearly eight times after the drug reports after seeing its price was reduced by more than 90% last year. The ceiling price will be raised to 2.60 rupees per ml against 29 pence per ml – the price of a 30 ml bottle will increase from 10 to 78 rupees.

Furoped or furosemide, commonly known as lasix, is a diuretic prescribed for babies with heart disease. It drains the body of fluids to reduce the burden on the heart. There is little else that works in the case of these babies when respiratory distress begins as a result of fluid accumulation.

EXPLAINED | How are drug prices regulated?

The submission of Samarth Pharmaceuticals, the company that supplies the drug, was discussed Thursday at a plenary meeting of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority. The company requested a price review taking into account costs and margins to argue that the ceiling price of Rs. 10 per unit made the product unsustainable for commercialization by a commercial enterprise. While the minutes of the meeting have not yet been finalized, sources told The Indian Express that the new ceiling price will be set at Rs 2.60 per ml

The price of the drug has been reduced from 92 percent in November last year. According to official data, the company has reduced its supplies by nearly 40%. The maximum retail price was Rs 106 before the NPPA caps the price. Interestingly, the decision to set the ceiling price at 29 p / mL was made without access to market data.

RK Vats, chairman of the NPPA, said: "In a plenary meeting of the authority, the submission of the company for the … considered today.They were invited to submit the relevant documents indicating costs, etc. These have been reviewed and a decision has been made to re-price the price to the level requested by the company.We do not want patients to be inconvenienced. "

Samarth's representatives stated that the company had simply submitted the relevant cost and margin calculations to the authority, but refrained from suggesting an appropriate price cap. exposed flaws in the pricing process in the NPPA. The order issued on November 23, 2017 was worded as follows: "Whereas NPPA has also requested information from the various government procurement agencies under the central and state governments and the State Medical Services. Corporation because it is necessary to set price ceilings. As a result, in the absence of relevant market data in the AIOCD-AWACS Pharmatrac Report, it was decided at the meeting of the authority held in the NPPA on 19/9 / 2017 to set price ceilings of the remaining planned formulations based on the purchase price.

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