Move to fix price of buprenorphine hailed

Amritsar, November 11

The decision of the state government to cap the price of buprenorphine, a de-addiction drug, has been hailed by local activists working on the issue. 

Ravinder Sultanwind, a local RTI activist and social worker, who had also filed a Public Interest Litigation on the issue, said: “Private de-addiction centres had turned the tables in their favour and were minting huge money by selling one tablet for around Rs 35 to Rs 40.” He said now, the government needed to make sure that patients got the medicine at the price fixed by it and private centres were not able to hoodwink the law. 

The Punjab government had last week fixed the price of one tablet at Rs 7.50. Sultanwind said: “Some de-addiction centres are making huge profits in the name of drug de-addiction. The distress of the affected families is being encashed on.”

Rajinder Sharma, another activist, said: “The decision of the government to fix the sale price of the medicine was a much-needed one. With lakhs of drug addiction patients, it was a huge burden on the poor families and a big business for private centres.” — TNS