Lucknow, Oct. 6 -- Patients in Uttar Pradesh will soon be able to check not only the price at which a medicine is sold to them but, in hospital pharmacies, the price at which it was purchased. The Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (UPFSDA) has directed pharmacies across the state to create public websites and disclose details of licences, pharmacists, medicine prices and weekly stock.

The move follows the department's findings of wide differences between the purchase price of medicines and their MRP or sale price, particularly at hospital pharmacies, where in-patients often have little choice but to buy medicines from the hospital pharmacy.

Under the new directions, hospital pharmacies and those serving in-patients will ...