DELHI: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday released a revised list of the National List of Essential Medicines(NLEM).
The list does not feature 384 drugs from 27 categories including Ranitidine which belongs to a group of drugs called histamine-2 blockers which is often consumed by people for acidity and other stomach-related ailments under brand names like Rantac, Zinetac, Aciloc was removed from the list over cancer-causing concerns.
A study in 2016 found that normal healthy people who took antacids like Zinetac and Aciloc which contains high levels of a chemical called Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) which is a wildly carcinogenic liquid and even a small dose of it can lead to cancer.
"The list which is being published now will ensure the accessibility, affordability and safety of some of the most needed drugs in India," said Mansukh Mandaviya while releasing the list.
The medicines which are added to the list also called scheduled drugs, are mostly made available free of cost to patients through government hospitals as part of various health programmes at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare.
These drugs are regulated under the Drugs Price Control Order, 2013 which means that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) fixes a ceiling price for their cost to customers every year and its price does not fluctuate during the year and remains stable at the fixed price.
The market share of scheduled drugs in India accounts for only 18% and the remaining 82 per cent remains outside the direct price control which means the prices can fluctuate for those unscheduled drugs as they are marketed by a particular company for example Ranbaxy and Mankind.
The newly revised list of the National List of Essential Medicines(NLEM) also added 34 new drugs that were not part of the NLEM 2015. It comprises of medicines such as the anti-tuberculosis drug Bedaquiline, the Rotavirus vaccine and the antibiotic Amikacin.
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