The Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, on the proposed National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy are reportedly going to make some changes in its own earlier recommendations to ensure the availability of essential medicines at lower prices.

Sources said that the GoM the proposed National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy has now decided to cap prices of a total of 348 essential medicines based on the simple average of all drugs available in a segment with over 1 per cent market share, rather than the weighted average that was previously proposed.

Speaking about this change, the source said, "This would mean the weight of market share will not be reflected in the ceiling price of the drug."

It is a significant change as a cap based on simple average would drag the prices of expensive drugs down to a reasonable level.

The second change to the previous recommendations is that drug makers would have to seek permission from the pricing authority before making any change in the composition of the essential medicines. The change aims to prevent drug makers from circumventing price control by adding new ingredients to any essential medicines.

The third major change is that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority would be free to review the prices of the essential drugs whenever required. Previously it was decided that authority would evaluate prices every five year.

Pawar said that the proposed National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy will be able to obtain the Cabinet's approval before 27th of November.