Will medicines get costlier by 12% in FY 2024-25? Here’s what government said

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday clarified that reports predicting significant hikes in medicine prices are false and misleading.

Media reports had claimed that prices of more than 500 medicines will increase by up to 12% from April 2024.

As per the Drug Price Control Orders (DPCO) 2013, drugs are classified as scheduled or non-scheduled formulations. Scheduled drugs are under price control, and non-scheduled drugs are out of price control.

Every year, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) revises the ceiling prices of scheduled medicines based on the wholesale price index (WPI). The increase in WPI leads to a rise in medicine prices

In a meeting last month, the authority approved increasing WPI by 0.00551% for the scheduled drugs.

Will medicines get costlier by 12%?

No. The government said that there are 923 medicines with ceiling prices in effect. Even after the WPI increase of 0.00551%, the existing ceiling prices for 782 medicines will continue without changes until March 31, 2025.

The prices of 54 medicines in the range of ₹90 to ₹261 will witness a minuscule increase of ₹0.01 (one paisa). Check revised medicine prices here.

"As the permissible price increase is miniscule, the companies may or may not avail this increase. Thus, in the year FY 2024-25, there will be almost no change in the ceiling price of medicines based on WPI," the government said.

The WPI increase is the maximum increase allowed under the DPCO. The revised prices of drugs are available on NPPA's website- www.nppaindia.nic.in.

In the case of non-scheduled drugs, manufacturers can set the price. However, they can only increase the maximum retail price (MRP) by 10% in the preceding 12 months.