Cancer drug prices may fall up to 70% from November 9 — What to know

Starting November 9, the prices of 137 cancer drugs will be reduced by up to 70%, according to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). The government has capped trade margins by 30%, aiming to address excessive trade margins. The move comes after the Supreme Court highlighted the significant disparity between the price to retailers and the MRP of medicines, in some cases more than ten times higher.

The NPPA has invoked Paragraph 19 of the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013 to implement this regulation. Among the drugs included in this list are patented products such as pertuzumab + trastuzumab, atezolizumab, teclistamab, inotuzumab ozogamicin, and daratumumab, with some MRPs reaching up to Rs 5 lakhs per vial/pack.

Manufacturers are required to inform the NPPA of their revised prices within seven days of the gazette notification. They must also display the price lists on their websites and widely disseminate them to retailers and hospitals, with hospitals displaying the revised prices prominently on their websites. Patient assistance program quantities may be excluded from the calculation of PTS/PTD (price to stockist/price to distributor) and MRP for trade-margin capping purposes.

Hospitals and medical institutions, which are responsible for ensuring the revised prices of these drugs from the implementation date, will also be held accountable. The NPPA stressed the importance of uninterrupted availability of the covered formulations and stated that any manufacturer reducing monthly production levels would need to seek permission.

Consumers can check the revised prices of drugs through the Pharma Sahi Daam app and the NPPA website. In 2019, the MRP of 526 brands of non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines was reduced by up to 90%. This new exercise extends this approach to a larger set of drugs, based on the recommendations of an expert committee under the Directorate General of Health Services.