Exorbitant pricing of drugs is ‘extortion': Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Expressing shock over patients and their families being fleeced by pharma companies and retail medicine sellers, Supreme Court on Tuesday said the exorbitant prices charged was nothing but “dacoity” in broad daylight and questioned the govt’s silence on the pressing issue faced by citizens.A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said price fixation of medicines was very important as people were being forced to sell their assets and ornaments to purchase medicines and suggested that all medicines should be brought under the purview of the price control mechanism and be made available under govt-sponsored Jan Aushadhi Kendras.