'Wonder drug' too costly for patients

DARBHANGA: World''s first oral drug for kala-azar, Miltefosien, termed as wonder drug by WHO, remains out of reach for the patients of north Bihar as most of them are poor and cannot afford it due to very high price.
Not a single tablet of the drug had been sold here inspite of its sale being launched recently. The full course of the drug consists of 56 tablets (each of 50 mg) costs Rs 8,576 plus local taxes.
Thus the selling price comes to Rs 9,433.Poor patients and their attendants have been found visiting the drug shops with doctor''s prescription but are unable to purchase it. They go back disappointed. Narendra Narain Mishra, vice president, Bihar Chemists and Druggists Association, said that unless the medicine is sold at subsidised rate, poor people cannot afford it. Keeping the large number of Kala-azar patients in the district in view, the drug should have been sold like hot cakes, but unfortunately, patients are returning empty-handed.
Mishra suggested that subsidising the drug should start by the state government through waiving of sales tax and turnover tax. He also informed that though the Union government had removed excise and import duty on the medicine, it would still have to devise ways for giving more subsidy on this drug.
Dr Bhaveshwar Mishra, who practises in Khirma village t, said that patients need this drug due to less toxicity and high recovery rate, but they are unable to purchase it. No provision of its supply in the Darbhanga Medical College exists, nor it is being made available in the PHCs and APHCs.