Drug price control order: the impact on pharmacoeconomics

Background: The objective of the present study was to analyze the prices of metformin, losartan, atorvastatin, paracetamol and aspirin for the doses which are included in the list of Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013.Methods: Current index medical specialties India, 37th year, April-July 2015 issue was used for analysis. The retail prices of the drugs in INR were tabulated in Microsoft Office Excel 2013. The prices of the above listed drugs were compared with prices of DPCO 2013 for the same doses of drugs. The analysis of drugs costing more than the prices listed in the DPCO with the margin of the difference in percentage was carried out.Results: Out of 25 brands of metformin 500 mg tablet, 11 (44%) brands had price higher than listed in DPCO 2013. Similarly, prices for losartan 25 mg and 50 mg tablets, 8 (25%) out of 32 and 11 (31.42%) out of 35 were higher respectively. For atorvastatin 5 mg and 10 mg tablets, 2 (9.52%) out of 21 and 8 (13.55%) out of 59 brands had higher prices. For paracetamol 500 mg tablet, 12 (63.15%) out of 19 brands were priced higher than DPCO list. For aspirin 100 mg tablet and 325 mg tablet, 3 (100%) out of 3 brands and 1 (100%) out of 1 brand had higher prices.Conclusions: Many of the brand formulations have higher prices than the DPCO 2013 issued by government of India. The clinicians prescribing these drugs should be aware of these brand formulations to reduce the cost of the drug therapy

Clinical and epidemiological characterization of severe Plasmodium vivax malaria in Gujarat, India.

The mounting evidence supporting the capacity of Plasmodium vivax to cause severe disease has prompted the need for a better characterization of the resulting clinical complications. India is making progress with reducing malaria, but epidemics of severe vivax malaria in Gujarat, one of the main contributors to the vivax malaria burden in the country, have been reported recently and may be the result of a decrease in transmission and immune development. Over a period of one year, we enrolled severe malaria patients admitted at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat, to investigate the morbidity of severe vivax malaria compared to severe falciparum malaria. Patients were submitted to standard thorough clinical and laboratory investigations and only PCR-confirmed infections were selected for the present study. Severevivax malaria (30 patients) was more frequent than severe falciparum malaria (8 patients) in our setting, and it predominantly affected adults (median age 32 years, interquartile range 22.5 years). This suggests a potential age shift in anti-malarial immunity, likely to result from the recent decrease in transmission across India. The clinical presentation of severe vivax patients was in line with previous reports, with jaundice as the most common complication. Our findings further support the need for epidemiological studies combining clinical characterization of severe vivax malaria and serological evaluation of exposure markers to monitor the impact of elimination programmes

India ICEMR Severe P. vivax and falciparum Cohort

A hospital-based cohort study conducted to compare severe malaria morbidity due to Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Patients that were admitted to the hospital with severe malaria were enrolled and followed until discharge