Shamnad recently posted on the differential pricing for Merck’s anti-diabetic drug Januvia. With this success under its belt, seems like Merck is set to start off a full fledged alternate pricing campaign in India to suit the ‘Indian pocket’, with patent approval already received for two of its drugs that help tackle obesity and dyslipidemia. The drugs are yet to receive DGCI approval, and are still in advanced Phase III trials, and the Economic Times reports that this strategy is part of a much larger gameplan to be a part of just under a 5% share in the Indian markets and emerge among one of the top players in the country by 2015.
Taking off from Shamnad’s post, it is perhaps as yet unfathomable as to the impact this will have on the Indian Pharma scene. While for consumers, this is a welcome change, pharma companies have yet to repsond to this challenge by Merck. Previous actions by giants in countries across the world, both developed and developing, have shown an increasing trend towards embracing differentially priced drugs with open arms. With this smart move by Merck definitely geared to generate some amount of interest, one can only hope the others needed someone to show them the way.
