Making mockery of the Government’s efforts to cut down a common man’s expenses on healthcare, companies are selling needles and syringes at prices far above their manufacturing costs in India, with maximum trade margins going up to around 1,250 per cent in some cases.
After detailed analysis of the available data on trade margins from official sources and manufacturers and importers, the drug price regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has found that syringes and needles are being sold at prices far higher than their rates to distributors. For instance, 5 ml hypodermic disposable syringes with needle which have an average price to distributor of Rs 2.31 are being sold at average maximum retail price of Rs 13.08 with maximum trade margin going as high as 1,251 per cent. Similarly, Insulin syringes (1 ml) are being sold at maximum trade margins of 400 per cent with needles and at 287 per cent without needles. Maximum trade margin is as high as 789 per cent for the disposable hypodermic needle whose average price to the distributor is Rs 1.48 and average maximum retail price is Rs 4.33, said the country’s drug price watchdog.