The government on Monday capped the prices of 42 essential medicines used in treatment of various ailments including tuberculosis, cancer and cardiac diseases, thereby, reducing their cost by up to 15%.

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), drug price regulator, in a notification on its website said it has fixed or revised ceiling prices of 45 scheduled formulations of Schedule-I under Drugs (Price Control) Amendment Order, 2016.

NPPA said manufacturers not complying with the ceiling price would be liable to deposit the overcharged amount along with interest. The government fixes the prices of essential drugs based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment, having sales of more than one percent.