In order to bring down prices of essential medicines, Kerala government has held a high level meeting with medicine manufacturing companies from across the country on Thursday in Thiruvananthapuram.Seventy one firms participated in the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and health minister Adoor Prakash. Later, addressing the media the health minister said that 75 more medicine outlets would be opened to contain fast escalating prices of drugs.About eight hundred and fifty medicines have been identified and prices of the same need to be curtailed, the minister added. Senior officials had held similar discussions in Mumbai and Bangalore last month.Medicine market of Kerala comes to the tune of Rs.1500 crore annually and the state has the highest per capita consumption in the country.