Industry Odisha Bureau, Oct 28: Several widely used cancer drugs will get much cheaper from November 9. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has released revised prices for 543 anti-cancer brands. Yet the price cut leaves some of the costliest brands untouched, Economic Times reported. These include top-selling patented therapies used in advanced cancer care.
Generic medicines see the steepest reductions. A pack of sunitinib capsules falls to ₹285.69 from ₹889, nearly 68% lower. A 30-tablet pack of olaparib drops to ₹2,695 from ₹15,398. Palbociclib 100 mg, in a 21-capsule pack, falls to ₹2,068 from ₹24,505. That is less than one-tenth of its earlier price. These drugs treat cancers including breast, ovarian, lung and liver cancer. For patients on long therapy, the savings could be substantial.
Patented drugs tell a different story. Keytruda (pembrolizumab) 100 mg stays at ₹2,16,500 per injection. Opdyta (nivolumab) 100 mg remains at ₹1,09,450 per infusion. Imjudo (tremelimumab) 300 mg is unchanged at ₹4,17,522. Tagrisso (osimertinib) prices are also untouched, though the report gives no figure. An industry source said this may change after further clarification from the Centre.
Patented drugs face little generic competition, which keeps prices high. Patent protection, however, does not automatically exempt a medicine from Indian price rules. Product classification and specific pricing provisions also shape which drugs are covered. The 543 brands did not all receive identical cuts.
The revisions follow an NPPA move on October 17. It capped trade margins at 30% for a list of 137 compounds. Trade margin is the gap between the first-point-of-sale price and the MRP. Companies must now fix MRPs at the first point of sale for non-scheduled formulations. This targets distribution markups rather than directly fixing manufacturers’ prices. Wholesalers, hospital pharmacies and retailers may see thinner margins as a result.
The changes come as the Supreme Court hears petitions on high hospital trade margins. The court has criticised regulators, hospitals and drugmakers over unaffordable cancer drugs. In a related hearing, it discussed a separate 16% margin cap. That is distinct from the NPPA’s 30% measure, and no final ruling exists.
List prices do not always reflect what patients actually pay. A veteran health policy expert said patient assistance programmes can lower effective costs. Such programmes run through private hospitals, but eligibility and access vary. The expert also urged the government to negotiate prices for institutional purchases. These include public health services and the armed forces. Pooled buying could improve bargaining power, though it remains a suggestion, not policy.
Cheaper medicines alone will not solve cancer affordability. Diagnostics, hospital stays and drug administration also add heavily to costs. The reforms bring real relief for many generic users. But the costliest therapies remain the hardest gap to close.
