New Delhi: The government on Friday announced a massive reduction in the prices of anti-cancer drugs and put out a list of 390 drugs that will get price slash.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has put out the list of 390 anti-cancer non-scheduled medicines with MRP reduction up to 87 per cent. The revised prices came into effect from today.
On February 27, the authority had put 42 anti-cancer drugs under “30 per cent trade margin” cap to enable price reduction. Manufacturers and hospitals were directed to convey the revised MRP on the listed drugs, based on the revised trade margin formula.
“As many as 390 brands, 91 per cent of the 426 anti-cancer brands reported by manufacturers, showed downward price movement after the February 27 move. The average ‘out-of-pocket’ expenditure for cancer patients is 2.5 times that for other diseases. This move is expected to benefit 22 lakh cancer patients in the country and result in annual savings of Rs 800 crore to consumers,” said Dr VK Paul, NITI Aayog Member. He said the trade margin rationalisation for 42 anti-cancer drugs was rolled out as proof of concept stressing on the new paradigm of self-regulation by the industry.
The manufacturers of these 42 drugs have been directed not to reduce production volume of brands under regulation. The range of reduction is 75% and more for 38 brands; 50 to 75% for 124 drugs; 25 to 50% for 121 drugs; below 25% for 107 drugs. Agencies
