New Delhi: A new list of essential medicines is being prepared to make it easier for cancer and heart disease medicines to be available at affordable prices. On Thursday, the first meeting of the committee on the matter was held. The government wants expensive drugs for cancer and heart diseases to be made available to patients at reasonable prices. Also, it should be decided to continue to supply such medicines. The meeting was attended by healthcare activists, representatives of pharmaceutical companies and people from the medical devices industry.

The Health Care Activist Group AIDAN stressed on fixing the price ceiling so that medicines can be available for all at a reasonable price. In particular, the WHO-based list of essential medicines should be prepared in India as well. There are a total of 460 essential medicines in WHO's core list. However, pharmaceutical companies argued that production of essential medicines would be affected if prices were slashed. This may reduce the supply of such medicines.

Domestic companies that manufacture medical devices have also suggested controlling prices of sinis, needles, etc. The committee also wants to include essential medicines such as medical devices, treatment govers, consumables such as bandages and hygiene products such as hand sanitizers.

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