Industry Odisha Bureau, Oct 13: An expert panel is to finalise the list of covered cancer drugs by 14 October. Retail prices could drop 20–70%. Patients may save an estimated ₹2,500 crore a year.
An expert panel will soon finalise cancer drugs for a proposed trade margin cap. The government plans to limit margins on selected non-scheduled cancer medicines to 30%. The move could make several costly treatments cheaper for patients.
The panel includes doctors from Tata Memorial Centre. Officials from the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) are also members. The Department of Pharmaceuticals and Directorate General of Health Services are represented too. It met on Friday and Monday to speed up the work, sources said. NPPA meeting minutes set a 14 October deadline for its recommended list. The list may be revised periodically, based on market and public-health needs.
The push follows an NPPA review of how cancer drugs are priced. It found average trade markups of about 170% on non-scheduled cancer medicines. Some drugs carried markups as high as 700%. Prices and discounts also varied widely across hospitals, retail pharmacies and e-pharmacies. Wide markups can leave patients paying far above what sellers paid.
The NPPA expects firms to cut maximum retail prices (MRPs) by 20–70%. The size of each cut will depend on a drug’s current trade structure. A 70% fall is a possible ceiling, not a promise for every medicine. The 30% cap is measured against the retail price. Measured against the stockist’s price, it works out to a 42.86% markup. A margin is a share of the selling price; a markup is added to cost.
The NPPA estimates annual savings of about ₹2,500 crore for patients. That figure depends on which drugs are listed and how prices actually fall. Cancer care often involves long, repeated courses, so lower prices could ease costs.
India’s cancer drug market spans about 225 medicines and 500 formulations. It has an annual turnover of roughly ₹12,500 crore. Scheduled drugs, already under price control, account for about ₹2,250 crore. The non-scheduled segment, the bulk of the market, is the cap’s target.
Listed branded, generic, domestic, imported, patented and non-patented drugs will all be covered. The rule targets distribution margins, not manufacturers’ selling prices. Officials therefore expect no direct hit to drugmakers’ revenues. Distributors and retailers, whose margins shrink, face the most direct impact. Makers of listed drugs must keep production at current levels to avoid shortages.
The NPPA has invoked Paragraph 19 of the Drug Price Control Order, 2013. It allows price action in extraordinary circumstances and in the public interest. The regulator cited excessive markups, market distortions and profiteering. The Supreme Court had also questioned cancer drug pricing. It questioned the Centre over a drug reportedly supplied to retailers at ₹2,700. That drug carried an MRP of ₹27,000.
The panel’s final list will decide how far the benefits reach. Actual savings will become clear only once revised MRPs reach pharmacy shelves.
