Indian manufacturers of Vitamin C, in a manner similar to the country's producers of toys, crackers, power equipment and numerous other goods, have over the past few years been facing stiff competition from cheaper products available from their northern neighbor. 



That was bad for the Indian factories, some of which were forced out of business, but at least consumers were still able to get hold of their vitamin supplements, and at a relatively low cost. 



Recently, however, Vitamin C production has dwindled in China as well, in part due to the Chinese government shutting down polluting factories in the run up to the August 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Surviving Indian firms that have turned to China for supplies of the raw material salts that go into Vitamin C production are meanwhile facing higher costs, as the Chinese factories that produce these are having to introduce cleaner technologies, driving up sale prices.

 
Compounding the Indian producers' woes, they cannot pass the higher costs on to consumers as the government in New Delhi, through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), keeps the sale price of Vitamin C products artificially depressed. The authority controls the pricing of 74 essential drugs.

 
Making matters worse, India's Central Board of Excise and Customs in June slapped an anti-dumping duty of US$3.99 per kilogram on imports of Chinese Vitamin-C, to stay in place for five years. 

The move was recommended by the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied duties to protect Indian industry. The Indian Finance Ministry said: "The domestic industry has suffered material injury and needed protection."



As a result, a market worth an estimated 2 billion rupees (US$43 million) in annual sales has become a loss-making business, leading to even more severe scarcity. The overall size of the Indian multi-vitamin market is about 15 billion rupees.



According to the All India Chemists and Druggists Association (AICDA), popular Vitamin C brands such as Limcee, manufactured by Piramal Healthcare, and Celine, from GlaxoSmithKline, have been in short supply for the past couple of months.

 
The AICDA says rising prices of Vitamin-C salts has resulted in pharmaceutical companies removing Vitamin C compounds from their multi-supplement brands.

 
Indian pharmaceutical companies dependent on the raw material from China want the Indian NPPA to make manufacturing of the drug a sustainable option.

 
Vitamin C is seen as helping to increase longevity and strengthen protection against contagious infections such as flu and cold. Vitamin supplements also help to counter malnutrition. In India, malnutrition rates are worse than sub-Saharan Africa, and much higher than in China. Amartya Sen, an Indian Nobel laureate in economics, has noted that China has reduced childhood malnutrition to 7%, while India stands as high as 42.5%.



With the onset of winter in India and H1N1 or swine-flu already claiming 485 lives in the country by the first week of November, doctors say that maintaining supplies of Vitamin C is crucial.

Even in the affluent Delhi suburb of Gurgaon, the vitamin supplement is now hard to find, and some chemists have taken to overcharging to take advantage of the shortage.



"A pack of 10 tablets of the supplement costs about three to five rupees more than the maximum retail price. This makes it expensive for many people - for construction workers in the area, for instance, as their daily wage is not more than a 40 rupees or so," said Subhash, at pharmaceutical outlet Ram Medicos.



Ajay Pal Gupta, vice president of India's druggists association, has said that since Vitamin C is a small product category with already low prices, the government should not control its price. "The government should regulate prices of medicines that are expensive."



Replying to concerns of the Indian industry, NPPA chairman SM Jharwal said, "If price is a constraint, we will certainly look into it." The response so far is bringing little comfort to manufacturers. "Even after the NPPA gave assurances of a price revision for Vitamin C no change as yet has been undertaken," said Harinder Sikka, director corporate affairs of Piramal Healthcare.