Ensure supply of buprenorphine at fixed rate: Health dept to pharma companies

Chandigarh: To ensure that substance abuse patients get de-addiction medicine at reasonable rates, the Punjab health department has directed the buprenorphine manufacturing companies to keep the prices decided by it. The companies have been warned that non-compliance will draw action by the state government.

On November 4, the Punjab government had capped the price of one tablet of buprenorphine at Rs 7.5, which was earlier being sold between Rs 30 and Rs 40 at these centres.

On Friday, the health department held a meeting with 10 pharmaceutical companies manufacturing buprenorphine to discuss the issue pertaining to ensuring adequate supply of the drug to the de-addiction centres in the state. During the meeting, which was chaired by principal secretary health Anurag Agarwal, the companies were asked to follow the rate fixed by the government.

According to sources, the companies were reluctant to supply buprenorphine-naloxone combination drug at the fixed rate. They asked the government to allow them to sell the medicine on their rates till the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) regulates the prices under the Essential Commodities Act. Agarwal, however, shot down the request.

Citing profiteering and commercialisation, the state government had recently asked NPPA to regulate the price of buprenorphine-naloxone so to make the treatment available to patients belonging to socio-economic backward class.

Of total 7.5 lakh addicts in Punjab, only 2.5 lakh are undergoing treatment. NPPA on Thursday had convened a meeting with Punjab health department officials at Delhi, which was also attended by representatives of the pharmaceutical companies to discuss the issue.

To cover the revenue loss caused due to capping of price, many private centres have started charging consultation fee in the range of Rs 300 to Rs 500. They are dispensing less medicine to the patients forcing them to revisit frequently.

If the rough estimates of the health department are to be believed, the private drug de-addiction centres, before the capping, were making windfall profits by selling buprenorphine to patients. On an average, these centres had collective revenue of about Rs 1.5 crore per day.

IN FIGURE

Total number of OOAT clinics | 191

Patients registered | 1,08,749

Buprenorphine tablets dispensed | 3,27,46,680

Total number of private centres | 100

Patients registered | 2,13,009

Buprenorphine tablets dispensed | 2,30,30,102