A Study on the Prices of some Branded Drugs of eight Therapeutic Categories

Plan: Five fastest moving brands of 54 generic drugs in eight therapeutic classes comprising a total of 323 brands were ranked based on retail sales twelve major retailers of Kannur and Kasargod in Kerala using a pretested questionnaire to find the percentage variation in prices between brands. Prologue: Over the years the numbers of drugs whose prices are controlled have come down to ninety one. Rest of the drugs are priced with huge profit margins and even life saving and essential medicines have not been spared.Methodology: A preliminary survey was conducted to understand the therapeutic categories which had highest sales. The selected brands were ranked in the order of their sale volume. Outcome: Percentage price variation between different fast moving brands in the therapeutic classes of Analgesics, Antiasthma, Antibiotics, Cardiovascular, Antidiabetics, Antiulcer, Hypolipidemics and Antipsychotics varies from 33% – 1620%. A price corridor should be fixed for brands coming under these generics to prevent exploitation of patients. Branding and marketing strategies enable top-of the-mind brand recall to catapult brands to the dominant positions in the minds of prescribers.