National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), at its recent meeting under the chairmanship of P. Krishnamurthy, has set the retail prices of 84 new drugs. Some of these drugs are anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammatory combinations, and other medicines. Price revision for some others was also undertaken based on submission of updated data.

Key Highlights:

Empagliflozin-based drug combinations priced

• 36 empagliflozin combinations had their retail prices fixed.

• Affected companies are Corona Remedies, Mankind Pharma, Zuventus Healthcare, Alkem, Lupin, Micro Labs, and others.

• Boehringer Ingelheim India had previously objected to incorrect patent expiry date and co-marketer mentions in earlier NPPA deliberations.

Anti-Diabetic and blood pressure medicines covered

• Price fixation covered glimepiride, dapagliflozin, sitagliptin combinations filed by companies like USV Ltd and Mankind Pharma.

• Anti-hypertensives like telmisartan, cilnidipine, and metoprolol succinate ER combinations were also priced.

Other common drug combinations included

• Prices finalized for paracetamol + phenylephrine + chlorpheniramine tablets.

• Ozone Pharma's L-carnitine + methylcobalamin + folic acid tablets and Unimed Technologies' rosuvastatin + aspirin + clopidogrel tablets were also added after being discovered launched without pre-price approval.

Vitamin D3 formulation changes

• Price of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) oral solution 60,000 IU in nano droplet form changed to ₹14.94/ml for German Remedies.

• Cipla's formulation updated to ₹15.03/ml following worksheet revisions and Pharmarack data re-verification.

NPPA pricing principles applied

• Wherever applicable, NPPA sanctioned the lowest of the launched price, worked-out price, and claimed price.

• Draft worksheets were revised from February to April 2025 following clarification and re-confirmation of market data.

NPPA's price fixation of 84 medicines is its ongoing attempt to make medicines affordable and transparent for India's pharma sector. The recent meeting covered both industry submissions as well as data inconsistencies to reconcile access with compliance across priority therapeutic areas.