NLEM Adds 34 New Drugs To Its List Including Nicotine Replacement Therapy

Essential medicines are going to be cheaper in India. The latest list of National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) has been released. These include medicines like anti diabetes drug insulin glargine, anti TB drug delamanid, ivermectin and antiparasite.

The NLEM List includes 384 medicines. According to the information, 34 medicines have been added to the list and 26 medicines have been removed.

The drugs listed in NLEM are sold below the price limit fixed by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). For the first time NLEM was created in 1996. It has been changed earlier in 2003, 2011 and 2015. This list has been revised for the fifth time in September 2022.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy has also been added to the list. That is, the drug that quits cigarettes is now included in NLEM. Apart from this, Ivermectin has also become part of the list, which is a medicine to kill insects. It has been found effective in many cases in covid. However, antibiotics like Erethromycin have also been removed from the list.

The increase in the prices of scheduled drugs is linked to inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI). For non-scheduled drugs, companies can increase the price by up to 10 per cent every year. Scheduled drugs account for roughly 17-18 per cent of the estimated Rs 1.6 lakh crore domestic pharma market. About 376 medicines are under price control.