GUWAHATI: India depends heavily on China for active raw ingredients as well as bulk drugs for the pharmaceutical industry.
With the country’s lockdown to control the spread of COVID 19, popularly known as the Coronavirus, the hit in the supply chain has affected the price of drugs in India.
According to a Bloomberg Report, the cost of azithromycin, a common drug used to treat bacterial infections has increased by 70 percent.
J Jayaseelan, Joint Secretary of Indian Drug Manufacturing Association had earlier informed media that prices of painkillers, multivitamins and a few antibiotics could also increase by 20 to 30 percent.
He further said that though prices would rise, there would be no shortage of drugs in the market.
Guwahati prices stable so far
However, sources in the Guwahati market informed G Plus that prices of medicines has not been affected as of yet. The markets have enough stock for three months. Moreover, in order to compensate for the drugs that was till now imported from China, the government has issued permits to the local producers to increase their produce to the extent possible. As such, possibilities of increase in the price of medicines in the near future are low.
Local pharmacies have reported that some people have stocked up fearing hike in prices, and the price of the popular vitamin C medicine LIMCI has increased from Rs 14 to Rs 17, given that Vitamin-C boosts the immune system.
