Why cheaper COVID-19 medicines not being promoted, Parliamentary panel asks govt officials

A parliamentary panel told senior government officials on Wednesday to promote cheaper and easily available domestic-made medicines for COVID-19, and check recommendation and prices of expensive medicines pushed by pharma companies, sources said.

During a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, members demanded that the maximum price of COVID-19 medicines be capped, they said. Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Joint Secretary in Health Ministry Lav Agarwal and other officials were present in the meeting chaired by Congress leader Anand Sharma.

Cutting across party lines, the committee members questioned why expensive medicines were often being recommended for COVID-19 treatment, sources in the panel said. The committee members expressed concern over black marketing of medicines. Naming three cheaper and easily available medicines, the committee members questioned why are they not being promoted despite being equally effective.