MNCs` entry threatens local pharma retailers in Uttar Pradesh
Vishal Sharma
New Delhi/ Agra. Multinationals entering the pharmaceutical retail segment are posing a threat to “friendly neighbourhood chemists”.
Companies like Apollo and Subhiksha have entered the pharma retail market in the metros by introducing the concept of designer stores, malls, in-house medical consultation, etc.
Worried by the growing clout of multinationals in this market segment, the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) held a meeting at the Hotel Jaypee Palace in Agra on Sunday, where pharmaceutical dealers and retailers from all over the country agreed on a strategy to counter this threat.
Talking to mediapersons on this occasion, AN Mohan, president, AIOCD, said multinational companies were making live-saving drugs prohibitively expensive by patenting the molecules of these drugs. Moreover, the central government’s pharmaceutical policy too, was placating such companies, he added.
He said one of the major achievements of the AIOCD was convincing the Centre to make a uniform maximum retail price (MRP) applicable for pharma retail across the country, with the reduction of VAT from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent. He said discussions were under way with the government to bring the prices of live-saving drugs under a monitored price policy.
He said the pharma retailers in UP were paying an additional 8 per cent trade tax on drugs imported from outside the state, which made the medicines fairly expensive in the state while also reducing the profit margins for the retailers.
The AIOCD has been constantly holding discussions with the state government to accept the VAT regime, at least in the pharmaceutical segment, which was suffering the most due to this tax disparity.
Mohan said it was decided that to protect the interests of the pharmaceutical retailers in the country, the AIOCD would be transformed into a corporate entity by forming companies at the state level and and provide commercial training to the 5.5 lakh members of the AIOCD, which should remain the parental body of all these state-level companies.
New Delhi/ Agra. Multinationals entering the pharmaceutical retail segment are posing a threat to “friendly neighbourhood chemists”.
Companies like Apollo and Subhiksha have entered the pharma retail market in the metros by introducing the concept of designer stores, malls, in-house medical consultation, etc.
Worried by the growing clout of multinationals in this market segment, the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) held a meeting at the Hotel Jaypee Palace in Agra on Sunday, where pharmaceutical dealers and retailers from all over the country agreed on a strategy to counter this threat.
Talking to mediapersons on this occasion, AN Mohan, president, AIOCD, said multinational companies were making live-saving drugs prohibitively expensive by patenting the molecules of these drugs. Moreover, the central government’s pharmaceutical policy too, was placating such companies, he added.
He said one of the major achievements of the AIOCD was convincing the Centre to make a uniform maximum retail price (MRP) applicable for pharma retail across the country, with the reduction of VAT from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent. He said discussions were under way with the government to bring the prices of live-saving drugs under a monitored price policy.
He said the pharma retailers in UP were paying an additional 8 per cent trade tax on drugs imported from outside the state, which made the medicines fairly expensive in the state while also reducing the profit margins for the retailers.
The AIOCD has been constantly holding discussions with the state government to accept the VAT regime, at least in the pharmaceutical segment, which was suffering the most due to this tax disparity.
Mohan said it was decided that to protect the interests of the pharmaceutical retailers in the country, the AIOCD would be transformed into a corporate entity by forming companies at the state level and and provide commercial training to the 5.5 lakh members of the AIOCD, which should remain the parental body of all these state-level companies.
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