Sunday, May 04, 2008

Pay more for new asthma drugs

From the Economic Times (India):
In an attempt to thwart price control, drug majors have withdrawn or reduced supplies of popular asthma drug Theophylline. Instead, companies like Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy’s, Cipla and Zydus Cadila have launched several new brands based on a Theophylline-derivative called Doxophylline, which is outside price control. The new brands allegedly have less efficacy, but are priced higher.

In the past year or so, companies such as Dr Reddy’s (Doxobid), Ranbaxy (Synasma), Zydus Cadila (Doxolin) and Macleods (Doxoril) launched anti-asthma drugs based on Doxophylline, which are outside price control. Over two million asthma patients in India are being made to be pay much higher price. While the cost of 10 tablets of Theophylline 400 mg is Rs 6.40, 10 tablets of Doxophylline of some brands cost as high as Rs 80. ...more

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