India on radar as Trump aims for cheaper drugs?

The Times of India, TNN& Agencies                      
October 18, 2017, Washington

United States President Donald Trump has promised to bring the cost of prescription drugs in the country "way down" and let other countries pay more for these medicines.

If effected, Trump's new policy on prescription drugs, dicussed with his cabinet at the White House on Monday, could have grave implications for India. The US has long had a grouse with India over its patent regime for pharmaceuticals. The Indian law sets the bar higher than most countries, including US, for which medicines deserve patents, allowing people to gain access to generic options sooner. India's regulatory system, which has efficiently delivered a pipeline of affordable and adapted generic medicines such as those used in the treatment of HIV, hepatitis C, TB and cancer, is also under the lens of US government.

Trump told members of his cabinet that the prices of prescription drugs in the US had "gone through the roof".

"If you look at the same drug by the same exact company made in the same exact box and sold some place else, sometimes it's a fraction of what we pay in this country," he said. Trump did not mention any country, but his policy could have implications for India.

This is because, for instance, earlier this year, India's National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPAA) fixed the price of drug eluting stents at $450 and bare metal stents at $110. The NPAA has said that it intended to take similar measures for other costly medical devices.

"The world as usual has taken advantage of the United States. They are setting prices in other countries and we are not. The drug companies frankly are getting away with murder," Trump said in his opening remarks.

"We want to bring prices down to whatever the other countries are paying or at least close to that," he said. "They (other countries) are setting such low prices that we're actually subsidising other countries. And that's just not going to happen anymore," Trump said.

"This has been going on for years where our people are paying so much more. I don't mean they are 2% more. They are paying double, triple, quadruple. They are paying so much more that it is very unfair to the US as usual," he said.


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