Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd said stockists and retailers have resumed purchasing its products across the country from the last week of November.
"...the trade has resumed the purchase of the company's products across the country since last week of November 2013," GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, the India unit of the British multinational, said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Notably, stockists and retailers had stopped buying the drugmaker’s products since September 15, which affected the company’s sales in major parts of the country.
GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in India with a market share of 4.2 per cent. The company currently employs around 5,000 people.
Earlier in August, GSK said that several products of the company have come under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013, which came into effect in May 2013, resulting in reduction of prices of the company's drugs.
Media reports had said earlier that wholesalers and retailers in many parts of India had stopped buying medicines from some companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, in protest against a reduction in their profit margins under a new government drug pricing policy.
As per the new drug pricing policy, the prices of 348 essential drugs are now being regulated as against 74 earlier. This has led to a decrease in prices of costly brands sold by drugmakers.
In order to compensate the pharmaceutical companies, the government also cut down margins for wholesalers to 8 per cent from 10 per cent earlier; and for retailers to 16 per cent from 20 per cent earlier.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)