Reduce prices of medicines, ease burden on people

Karimnagar: Telangana Medical and Sales Representative Union Karimnagar district committee organized a 'Jeep Jatha' demanding reduction in the prices of medicines.

Speaking to the media, CITU district secretary Edla Ramesh said that in the last two years, the prices of the commodities required for the livelihood of the common people have increased tremendously in India. Apart from petrol, food grains, and pulses prices, the prices of medicines in the country have been increasing. The average expenditure on healthcare in India is much higher than in many countries in the world. A lion's share of this, 18%, goes to the purchase of medicines, he said.

Almost all the medicines required for the healthcare of common people in India are now manufactured by medium and large-scale pharma companies. 55 million people in India live in poverty.

Over 18% of each household was exposed to alarming health costs. Due to the shortage of three ingredients from abroad during the Covid pandemic, private Indian companies have put immense pressure on the government to increase the production of their medicines.

Under corporate pressure, the government allowed an increase in the prices of several drugs by up to 50% at once. As a result of this policy, the prices of about 850 medicines have gone up. The basic principle of drug price control was completely violated by this move, Ramesh said.

There was certainly a lot to take into account regarding the socioeconomic status of the country. There were seven public-sector vaccine production units in India. These have been producing high-quality products for years. Ignoring these PSCs, the two public-private sector companies were promoted by the Centre making it clear that the present government was against the people, he said.

P Murali, former State president of Telangana Medical Sales Representative Union (CITU) said the Central government currently spends less than two percent of GDP on health care, which is the lowest in the world

CITU district treasurer G Rajesham and district assistant secretary Punnam Ravi were present in this program. Union State Vice-President G Vidyasagar, state executive committee members G Srinivas, former district secretary D Srinivas, district presidents JN Narasimha Reddy, vice-presidents P Narender and C Sivakumar respectively, joint secretary Sampath Reddy, K Ramesh, and treasurer Venkateshwarlu were present.