Now the medicines of pain relievers may give you pain to your pocket! Prices of around 800 essential medicines including painkillers, antibiotics, anti-infective are set to go up from April.
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The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the country's drug pricing authority announced a 10.7% change in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for the calendar year 2021 over the same period in 2020.
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"Based on the WPI data provided by the office of the Economic Advisor, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the annual change in WPI works out as 10.76607% during the calendar year 2021 over the corresponding period in 2020," the NPPA notice said.
Over the last two years, prices of some key APIs have increased between 15% to 130% with the price of paracetamol jumping 130%. The price of medicines used to cure infections, fever, skin diseases, heart diseases, anaemia, and high blood pressure will increase.