Analysis of pricing of oral antiviral drug formulations available in Indian market

Abstract

Background: Price of drug is highly variable in Indian market and it is a serious issue for people belonging to lower economic status in India. Manufacturing of single drug under different brand names by various pharmaceutical companies and sold under different price. Thus, a study was conducted to evaluate the variation in prices of antiviral drugs in Indian rupees. Aims and Objectives: Analysis of the price variation of the antiviral drugs of various brands available in Indian market. Materials and Methods: Price of a particular drug in the same strength and dosage forms being manufactured by different companies was obtained from “Current Index of Medical Specialties” October 2016–January 2017. Maximum and minimum price of antiviral drugs manufactured by different pharmaceutical companies and percentage variation in price were calculated. Results: Overall, the prices of 14 single and eight fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of antiviral drugs available in different formulations were analyzed. Among antiretroviral drugs, percentage price variation in Indian market was found to be maximum for zidovudine (100 mg capsule) 763% followed by lamivudine (100 mg tablet) - 361% and didanosine (400 mg tablet) - 69%. Among anti-herpes drugs, it was acyclovir (200 mg tablet) 161%. Among FDCs maximum price variation found to be lamivudine + zidovudine (300 + 300 mg) tablet 290% followed by lopinavir + ritonavir (150 + 300 mg) tablet 24.58% and nevirapine + lamivudine + stavudine (200 + 150 + 30 mg) tablet 21.18%. Conclusion: There is a wide variation in the prices of oral antiviral drugs available in Indian market. Physician should consider the cost while prescribing antiviral drugs. To minimizing the economic burden to the patients, the physicians, regulatory authorities, and Pharma companies should maximize their efforts to reduce the cost of drugs.