BENGALURU: Health Minister UT Khader on Saturday welcomed the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority’s (NPPA) move to restrict trade margins on non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines to 30%, and urged the Centre to extend similar regulation to expensive medicines, medical equipment and consumables used in treating cardiac and kidney ailments.
Calling it a historic day, Khader said the state’s efforts to highlight the exorbitant prices of cancer medicines had begun yielding results. He said the NPPA had directed the Union Health Ministry to submit, by October 14, a list of the cancer medicines to be covered, along with details of their profit margins.
The proposed measure is expected to reduce the prices of several expensive cancer medicines by up to 70%, potentially saving patients around Rs 2,500 crore, according to the Centre’s estimates. The final list of medicines is yet to be determined, and the NPPA is expected to issue a notification after the process is completed.
Khader said the move would bring greater transparency to medicine pricing, as packages generally display only the maximum retail price (MRP), leaving patients with little information about the actual procurement costs and margins involved.
“If a 30% cap is implemented, the prices of several expensive medicines could come down substantially. Some medicines costing Rs 3,000 are sold at Rs 25,000, while an injection reportedly costing Rs 5,000 was being sold at Rs 65,000,” he said.
Cancer treatment often requires multiple injections, sometimes 10 or 12, pushing the total cost into several lakhs of rupees. Khader said regulating prices could substantially reduce the financial burden on patients and their families.
Karnataka seeks similar curbs on other medicines
Khader expressed confidence that the Union Health Ministry would implement the NPPA’s directions and said Karnataka would submit further representations to the authority and the Centre. In a September 23 letter to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, Khader sought intervention over the wide gap between hospitals’ procurement costs and the prices charged to patients.
The State’s Food and Drug Safety Department analysed around 253 cancer medicines, documenting their landing costs and selling prices. The government said this information was subsequently made public and submitted to the Centre, seeking intervention.
Khader said the state was now compiling similar information on expensive medicines, cardiac and kidney-related equipment, medical consumables and other high-cost medical devices. The government would examine their manufacturing costs and selling prices and release the information in the coming days.
The state’s proposals include bringing advanced chemotherapy and targeted therapy medicines under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, imposing comprehensive trade-margin caps on high-cost life-saving drugs. A circular was issued to healthcare institutions on October 1, directing them to mention both the landing cost and MRP of medicines in bills issued to patients. The instructions are proposed to take effect from November 1.
Khader said Karnataka would seek similar regulation of expensive medicines and medical equipment used to treat other serious conditions. He pointed out that some medical machines cost Rs 3 crore, Rs 5 crore, Rs 25 crore or even Rs 60 crore, and said reasonable limits on profit margins could indirectly reduce treatment costs.