India slashes cost of cancer drugs after court rules mark-ups are ‘extortion’ — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Department of Pharmaceuticals projected that extending the 30% trade-margin cap, already applied to 42 drugs, to 137 additional cancer medicines would cut prices by up to 70% and save patients 2,500 crore rupees (£199m) annually.
- Supreme Court justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, at the 29 September hearing, highlighted a drug supplied to hospitals for 2,700 rupees and marked up to 27,000, calling the situation “carnage” and “extortion”.
- National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority analysis found average trade mark-ups of 170% on some cancer drugs, with extreme cases exceeding 700%.
- Sarojam Radhakrishnan petitioned the Kerala High Court in 2022 after monthly targeted breast-cancer treatment costs exceeded 63,000 rupees; she died in September 2022 while the case was pending.
- Ayushman Bharat offers families 500,000 rupees of annual cancer-treatment cover, equal to one dose of Kadcyla, while some patients need up to 14 doses.
- Supreme Court asked government lawyers why the cap should cover only cancer drugs rather than the entire range of non-patented drugs, and set a 27 October deadline for the government’s response.
- Working Group on Access to Medicines and Treatments said full supply-chain regulation was needed and warned that companies and hospitals were likely to seek legal loopholes, including offsetting lower drug prices with other charges.
Why it matters: The government projects up to 70% lower medicine prices for lower-income cancer patients and 2,500 crore rupees in annual savings. Yet the expansion adds 137 drugs to a cap previously covering 42, while the Supreme Court’s broader question and civil society’s warning show that point-of-sale limits do not by themselves cover the entire pricing chain.
Ask SkimNews
