Several high-cost and critical-care medicines do not ordinarily reach retail pharmacies as they are supplied through hospital dispensaries, said Raghunath Reddy, president of the Karnataka Chemists and Druggists Association (KCDA). As a result, patients may have little idea of the actual price, he said.
He also claimed that pharmaceutical companies may provide hospitals with additional rebates or incentives over and above the institutional discount, and called for greater scrutiny of hospital bills and procurement records.
The margins available to wholesalers and retailers are comparatively limited, said Ravindra Bhusnur, vice-president of the Karnataka Pharma Retailers & Distributors Organisation. Wholesalers generally receive around 8-10% and retailers around 16-20%, while the larger benefit of institutional discounts can remain with the institution where the medicine is sold, he said.
Many hospitals operate their own pharmacy counters, he added, stressing that the association has urged the government and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to bring down medicine prices.
The three representatives supported extending price controls to high-value medicines. Medicines already covered by the Drug Price Control Order are sold within government-fixed ceilings, and bringing more high-value and high-volume medicines under similar regulation would benefit patients, Bhusnur said.