Essential medicines including painkillers, antibiotics to get costlier by 12% from Saturday

India’s drug pricing authority on Monday allowed a price hike of 12.1218% from April 1 for scheduled drugs that are under price control. This will cover more than 800 drugs on the National List of Essential Medicines. Last year, the NPPA allowed a 10.7% increase in drug prices, citing a similar change in the WPI.