In the 53rd episode of The Health Wrap by The Hindu, Zubeda Hamid, Senior Assistant Editor, and Athira Elssa Johnson, Senior Reporter, discuss medicine pricing, drug safety and dengue surveillance.
The episode examines the Supreme Court’s concerns over the difference between the supply price and maximum retail price of essential cancer medicines. The episode also covers the risks of indiscriminate painkiller and antibiotic use, including kidney disease and antimicrobial resistance. unnecessary or incorrect antibiotic use can make infections harder to treat While prolonged or inappropriate use of painkillers can cause kidney-related complications. The discussion highlights the importance of appropriate prescribing and responsible medicine use. The final segment focuses on a Dengue Early Warning System being developed by researchers at the Institute of Advanced Virology in Keralam. The system combines disease surveillance data with rainfall, temperature and humidity to generate weekly, district-level forecasts using machine learning.
In one instance, the court was told that a cancer drug with a price to retailer of about ₹2,700 carried a maximum retail price of ₹27,000. The discussion also covers the court’s concerns about hospitals requiring patients to buy medicines from their own pharmacies, its suggestion of a uniform 16% margin and questions around generic prescriptions and the implementation of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order.
The Bench described the difference as “broad daylight dacoity”.
