The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has fixed the retail prices of 41 drug combinations, including 18 variants of the off-patent diabetes drug empagliflozin, originally developed by German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim.
The move follows the expiry of empagliflozin’s patent on March 11, which opened the market to multiple generic versions by pharmaceutical companies. The launch of these variants has led to a significant 80 to 85 per cent drop in prices, prompting regulatory action to fix retail rates.
Last month, the authority had fixed retail prices for another 36 variants and combinations of empagliflozin.
The updated list includes anti-diabetic combinations involving empagliflozin with linagliptin, glimepiride, sitagliptin, and metformin hydrochloride, manufactured and marketed by pharmaceutical companies such as Blue Cross Laboratories, Torrent Pharma, Cadila, Glenmark, and Alkem Laboratories.
It also includes a combination of clindamycin and nicotinamide gel, which is used to treat acne, and multivitamin tablets containing iron, folic acid, and cyanocobalamin syrup.
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