US pharma companies to raise drug prices soon: What this means for the Indian firms

Pharmaceutical companies in the US are looking at price hikes according to reports. Pfizer plans to hike prices on more than 50 drugs, GSK plans to raise prices on more than 30 medicines and Sanofi to increase prices on 10 drugs.

Generally, a lot of Indian pharmaceutical companies get deterred because many big companies are looking to hike prices in the US on around 200 medications and the price hikes are supposed to be modest – sub 10 percent – anywhere between 4 percent and 6 percent.

In terms of the impact for Indian pharmaceutical companies, these price hikes are mainly for patented drugs, drugs that are already under patent. Indian companies generally sell drugs, which are in the generic form. So those prices are already subsidised quite a bit. So these price hikes are not going to affect pharmaceutical companies in India or those that have a majority presence in the generic market.