India’s drug pricing regulator has allowed pharmaceutical companies to increase the ceiling price of essential medicine heparin by 50 percent. This may only be the first of several drugs to get a price hike as the country tries to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak here as the nationwide lockdown and the ‘China’ factor takes its toll on India’s pharmaceutical industry.
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Key-Points
Heparin also known as unfractionated heparin is a blood thinner that has long been used in patients vulnerable to blood clots in their legs, lungs, heart or other body parts.
It is used to reduce their risk of heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary embolism. Several patients with critical illnesses, including those requiring kidney dialysis, are given the drug.
It is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.
Heparin was discovered by Jay McLean and William Henry Howell in 1916, although it did not enter clinical trials until 1935.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare included the drug in its clinical management guidelines for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in the ICU.
