Why Does an $84,000 Drug in the U S. Cost Less Than $1,000 in India

Fortunately, the reality is that the generic medicines manufactured in India are as safe and efficacious as those made in the United States. For instance, many people are taken aback to learn that more than 90 percent of the medicines prescribed by doctors in the U.S. are generics. These prices can fluctuate based on the pharmacy and specific dosage requirements like Cabozantinib 20mg, 40mg and 60mg. To purchase generic Cabozantinib online in India, you can directly consult supplier and ask discount, any offers. The availability of such generic formulations plays a crucial role in enhancing the accessibility and affordability of essential cancer treatments.

Limitations of this study

• These savings are a driving factor for many, particularly as medication prices continue to rise in the US.
• Professor Schondelmeyer favors creating what he calls “concentric circles” starting with the most at-risk drugs, which start with drugs produced in at-risk countries in only one factory, then move out to include those produced at multiple facilities or multiple countries and those in current shortage.
• The market is dominated by generic products with 71% of the total market share and 20% of global exports in terms of volume, which makes India the largest supplier of generics globally (IBEF, 2016), with particular importance in the field of vaccines (Chattopadhyay and Bercovitz, 2020).
• For each selected brand of AMLO FPP, two strips containing 20–30 tablets (in total), were taken.
• Thus, not granting a patent for Glivec really hasn’t prevented patients from getting this life-saving medication.
• Haiti’s plight is a reminder of the international community’s wider and longer-term responsibilities to the country.

A sample list of generic drugs available in India along with their indication is depicted in Table 1. Adequate infrastructure is one of the prerequisites for efficient storage and distribution of medicines. Progress in the direction of infrastructure expansion and strengthening improves both service delivery and availability of medicines for the end-users. When faced with challenges of infrastructural shortfall to store and dispense medicines, a few states reported adopting alternative measures to ensure the distribution of medicines. For instance, there were reports of users facing constraints in accessing medicines at these pharmacies due to stock out of generic medicines and distribution of near-expiry or expired medicines and branded medicines, which invariably resulted in OOPE.

Thalix (Thalidomide) price in India

This would not only contribute to increased demand generation but also mitigate the burden of accessing quality medicines and consequent financial hardship. In the years of NRHM ( ), a few states like Kerala, Assam, and Jharkhand already had state policies for free services and medicines for BPL families. Under the NCD control programme, medicines were first made available free of cost in the states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. After the launch of NHM (subsuming NRHM and NUHM), most of the states adopted a policy for free medicines in public health facilities, which gradually brought down the OOPE on medicines.

GENERIC DRUG: PRESCRIBER’S PERSPECTIVE

Not only would this be bad news for India’s economy, it could make it harder for developing countries to access the medicines they need – threatening the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the process. In my last two articles, I discussed the recent surge in prescription drug costs, the reasons for the surge, and possible solutions. In this article, I’ll discuss why drugs frequently cost so much more in the U.S. than they do in other countries, why this disparity may be justified, and where we go from here. The government should ensure uniform quality across all the generics, and experts in the field of medicine say only then will doctors prescribe them willingly and with confidence.

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Overall, the pharma and healthcare industry in India presents tremendous potential for growth especially in innovation, research, early detection, and futuristic solutions like robotics-assisted surgery. By leveraging its strengths, embracing technological advancements, and fostering collaboration, the Indian pharmaceutical industry can continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare delivery both domestically and internationally. Making the healthcare supply chain resilient will require end-to-end supply chain visibility through digitalisation and use of global standards which facilitate interoperability. According to the study, “over 80 per cent of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Manufacturers do not have product visibility till point of care. In October 2023, OPPI and EY conducted primary research, engaging with approximately 40 Chief Executive Officers (CXOs) representing prominent Indian and multinational pharmaceutical companies, as well as other industry organizations.

A narrative strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis of the Indian pharmaceutical industry

Hence, the critical issues that affect the quality of generic drugs are purity, potency, stability, and drug release, and these should be controlled within an appropriate limit, range, or distribution to ensure the desired drug quality. EHR systems with e-prescribing capabilities help providers identify cost-saving opportunities, such as more affordable generic or therapeutic alternatives. With additional tools like coupon finders, EHR systems can locate the best local prescription prices and provide real-time data for drug-specific directions, enabling providers to offer more personalized and budget-friendly care.

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A 3-tiered public healthcare delivery system is catering to the needs of the population of these two districts. At the bottom of the health services pyramid, there are primary health centres (PHC), sub-centres (SC) and health posts (HP), which focus on primary care. The mid-level of the pyramid, which is the secondary care level, includes rural hospitals and municipal general hospitals, and at the top level, tertiary care institutions like medical colleges are there. According to the PBBJP portal, 29 PMBJP pharmacies are currently functional across these two districts.

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The sale of PMBJP medicines is mainly dependent on the prescription of generic drugs by the physicians. But doctors from private health care facilities hardly mention the generic or chemical names of drugs on the prescription slips and only 60 percent of the prescriptions from public health facilities contain generic names [27]. We found that, in spite of the awareness campaign by the PMBJP, physicians, especially those having private practice remained apprehensive regarding the therapeutic efficacy and the quality of unbranded generic medicines. In low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as India, patients and healthcare providers (both public and private) often struggle with high and increasing pharmaceutical prices due to low and weak health insurance coverage, which restricts patient access.

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There is a concrete risk of confusion in the minds of patients/consumers regarding which drug should be considered due to this price variation. Therefore, price controls were effective at analyzing this price variation and are attempting to decrease the difference even more (Jhanwar and Sharma, 2018). With specific reference to single commercial relationships, the USA and other developed countries are major trade partners as far as exports are concerned, while India depends significantly on imports of APIs from China (Rbi.org.in). More broadly, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has major exports to North America and Europe and major imports from Asia and Europe.

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The study findings show that PMBJP’s unbranded generics offer great opportunities for substantial cost savings. But, in order to fully realise the potential of this scheme, some policy actions are urgently required. Fourth, PMBJP’s medicine procurement and distribution policies must be reviewed to address the supply chain issues. Moreover, there is a need for major pharmaceutical policy reforms to promote generic medicines in a big way.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has been living a situation of constant growth in recent years, as shown by statistical analyses of the field at the descriptive and inferential levels. There are increased expectations regarding both the production amount and the trade balance value. There was an enormous effect of price policies on brands and drugs that had similar contents. These branded drugs showed a variation in pricing, also known as inter-brand price variation. There was ample availability of multiple brands for identical drugs in India, and therefore, after DPCO was revised in 2013, a so-called tug of war between these branded drugs began.

• You can share this content on Americans’ preferences for generic versus brand-name medications for noncommercial purposes as long as you provide a link to this source page.
• Effective systems are those which are not only apprised of local and aggregate demands for medicines but also have commensurate capacities to meet the demands.
• India, meanwhile, has developed a $15-billion generic-pharmaceutical industry, with labour costs about one-tenth of those in Canada.
• With over 165,000 providers and 190 million patient records, Tebra is redefining healthcare through innovation and a commitment to customer success.
• But, says Dinesh Thakur, a soft-spoken chemical engineer and former executive with Ranbaxy Laboratories, it comes with a price of its own.
• The production of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals and botanicals for health-care has been growing yearly in India.
• She has represented the firm at national and international conferences and conclaves in India and Dubai.
• Despite the changing dynamics across the global industry, there is a lot to be positive about.

The cost of generic medicines of PMBJP outlets for treating various conditions range from 0.01 days’ wages to 0.47 days’ wages for the lowest paid unskilled worker in Maharashtra. One inherent limitation of this study is that we have tested pair of branded and branded-generic medicines that were manufactured by the same “reputed” company. Though it is expected that both the versions should have the same quality but perception for any branded-generic is same among doctors and patients. So to start with, we have taken both branded and branded-generic products of the same company and studied not only the quality but also the price structure.

Market introduction/overview

As hospitals and insurers seek to drive down the price of generic drugs, the process has pushed generic manufacturing into the hands of fewer and fewer companies, with an ever-larger percentage of them in India and China. The offshoring of production to China and India has put the U.S. in a dangerous position, dependent on unreliable suppliers. Chinese and Indian manufacturers have demonstrated a pattern of repeatedly violating FDA regulations. FDA inspections are ineffective at controlling quality standards at Chinese and Indian facilities.

• Generic medications go through testing for quality, strength, purity, and potency to show effectiveness before being approved by the FDA.
• The NPPA is responsible to fix, revise and monitor the pricing of such ‘controlled drugs’, which are listed by the Government in the dynamic National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).
• Healthcare providers can help patients make informed medication decisions by offering personalized care and professional insights on cost and effectiveness.
• The state experiences underscore the need towards establishing robust tracking mechanisms for the efficient utilization of resources.
• Most of the time patients want relief from pain as quick as possible and thus they are ready to pay even high for medicines.
• This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This provides an added advantage to the nation, which assists in developing processes that are cost-effective (Mahajan, 2019). DPCO has been a drawback for drug companies because it caused a decrease in their profit margins. Developing a medicine involves many aspects and is quite costly; hence, reducing their prices and profit margins has generated complex situations for pharmaceutical companies.

Any medicine information provided on this website is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for specific or medical advice. That’s why the launch of this drug will make it more affordable for breast cancer patients to manage the disease. For treatment harvoni cost uk of breast cancer, Palbociclib is administered with hormone (endocrine) therapy. By our calculations, China’s global share of formulations exports trebled from 0.4% in 2009 to 1.2% in 2018, while India’s doubled over the same period from 1.5% to 3.6%.

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Of the 10 drugs already on the market and recalled because of quality defects since New Year’s Eve, four were made in Indian factories, Health Canada says. They included lots of a generic version of the antibiotic cefazolin, pulled because of fears the intravenous solution contained foreign particles. This push to make generics ever cheaper is saving the health-care system billions of dollars. But, says Dinesh Thakur, a soft-spoken chemical engineer and former executive with Ranbaxy Laboratories, it comes with a price of its own. This means about one in 20 of this country’s finished drugs are now made in India – roughly 20 million prescriptions a year.

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We found that switching from branded-generic medicine to unbranded generic medicines would lead to substantial cost savings for medicine consumers. Our estimates suggest that unbranded generic substitution would reduce pharmaceutical expenditure by 6–1129% of patient’s spending. However, caution must be exercised while interpreting affordability because of the following reasons. First, affordability might differ depending upon the compliance of the minimum wages act of the Maharashtra government. Second, the level of economic development varies considerably across states and between rural and urban areas in India and this needs to be taken into account while extrapolating results of this study to other states and national level.

Canadian, Australian and European regulators also gave passing grades to Ranbaxy, despite the company’s guilty plea to seven offences in the U.S., notes Dinkar Saran, a pharmaceutical-industry consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Boston. The national regulator reportedly has fewer than 400 staff to police more than 1,300 factories, and does not even oversee many of the drugs exported to places like Canada. That job falls to state-level officials, who have a reputation for being under-trained and corrupt. We will not dispense any prescription medicine without a valid prescription from a licensed/certified doctor physician. A bottle of 21 capsules costs between 5000 and 6000 Indian Rupees, depending on the strength of the medicine, making it very affordable.

In addition to modern medicine, Ayurveda and the other mentioned treatments are highly popular in India. Patanjali, Himalaya, Vicco Laboratories and Dabur are the major companies manufacturing in the field (Mehrotra et al., 2017). Indian companies engaged in AYUSH production and distribution will have to consider a long-term perspective; in the near future, positive results are likely, but in long-range planning, with the tremendous increase of technology, focusing on this segment could be very risky.

Because more than half of India’s pharmaceutical exports are to highly regulated markets such as the United States, Indian manufacturers must comply with strict U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines that include regular and rigorous inspections to ensure compliance. However, some key obstacles remain to be addressed for the country to fully realise the remarkable growth potential of its healthcare market. These are limited resources, infrastructure deficits, shortage of health professionals, access and affordability of medicines in rural and semi-urban areas, as well as lack of public awareness about available healthcare benefits. Some reported that quality issues are hindering the uptake of unbranded generics, and asked for strong regulatory framework for quality control. “When we write any generic medicines and if it is not available in hospital pharmacy, patients have to go to other pharmacies to buy it.

On top of all these problems is the large and growing national security risk as more and more drugs become dependent on suppliers from China. Even the common knowledge that we are becoming dependent on a small number of large drug companies for generic drugs understates the dependency on China. Qyobo is a software startup that collects pharmaceutical data from dozens of national and international databases to provide a picture of the drug supply chain that is not only superior to what the patient or the doctor sees, it is probably superior to the knowledge of the FDA.

Drugs registered under DPCO must be sold within the price range, which is mandatory for the company and therefore, the break-even point is sometimes barely reached (Paul, 2018). Indian companies will continue to expand globally, enriching their manufacturing capabilities to meet the growing demand in the world. The future will see a major role in global healthcare by Indian pharma, not only in making medicines affordable, but also in strengthening India’s position as a global hub for making innovative and high-quality medicines. These policy issues, along with market forces, drive the response of the public and private sectors to reimbursement policies, as well as determine the extent of price control on pharmaceutical products.

Unfortunately, access to medicine is mainly determined by socioeconomic status in low and middle income countries, with poor medicine access among disadvantaged populations []. Indians mainly rely on private purchases for healthcare including medicine, and the country’s low public spending on health at 1.3% of GDP coupled with majority of people being either uninsured or underinsured makes this especially unaffordable for the poor [25]. Purchase of medicine contributes the most (60.6%) to the OOP health payments by households, and pushes more than 3% Indians into poverty every year [3, 25]. In response to poor medicine access and reduce the financial burden of medicine, Government of India has been promoting the use of unbranded generics by rebranding and expanding its generic medicine scheme (PMBJP).

The company ignored tests showing unknown impurities in some drugs, and inspectors came across samples with bacteria and mould that were “TNTC,” too numerous to count. What that patient is unlikely to know is the drug’s active ingredients come from a company called Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. in India — or that U.S. inspectors made some eye-opening discoveries recently at the plant that produces them. The medicine will be only for personal use and not more than 3 month supply at a time. Quality and price of medicines were studied to evaluate the two versions of the same therapeutic molecule.

Furthermore, as reported in Table 4, the positive trade balance trend appears to be confirmed for the future, most likely by virtue of renewed attention of the global economies on India’s pharmaceutical industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian federal Department of Health Jan. 28 is soliciting price quotes on 504 drugs including painkillers, antibiotics and medicines to treat respiratory, cardiovascular and gastroenterological diseases for a program to improve access to generic drugs. A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by patents. Because the active chemical substance is the same, the medical profile of generics is believed to be equivalent in performance. As per statistics, about 60% of Indians cannot afford to buy their daily medicines because of unnecessary high prices of medicines in the Indian pharmaceutical market.

Furthermore, India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) recently announced plans for a new pricing reform for pharmaceutical products and the induction of price control for medical devices, which would induce more stringent rules over pharmaceutical pricing. Such measures risk decreasing sales of price-controlled products, which in turn could discourage multinational pharmaceutical companies from launching new products in the Indian market. In India, a dispensing pharmacist is not authorized to substitute a branded medicine with a branded-generic (or generic) as per the provisions under Rule 65 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules, 1945, which also add to the patient’s burden.