India extends 30% trade-margin cap to 137 more cancer drugs
The government has widened a cap already covering 42 medicines, with lower prices expected from November 2026.
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The government has widened a cap already covering 42 medicines, with lower prices expected from November 2026.
India’s government has extended a 30% cap on trade margins to 137 additional cancer medicines, with lower prices expected from November 2026, the Guardian reported on 23 October. The expansion follows Supreme Court findings about large mark-ups charged on medicines.
The same cap has covered 42 drugs for several years. It limits the margins taken by hospitals, distributors and pharmacies; it does not require a uniform 30% reduction in every medicine’s price.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals projects price reductions of up to 70% and annual patient savings of 2,500 crore rupees—25 billion rupees, or £199 million. Those are expected effects, not measured savings or a guaranteed reduction for each medicine.
The court action began with Sarojam Radhakrishnan, a retired bank employee in Kerala. After a breast-cancer diagnosis in 2021, doctors prescribed targeted treatments costing more than 63,000 rupees a month, beyond her family’s means. She petitioned the Kerala High Court in 2022 for government intervention. She died in September that year while the case was still pending there.
When the case reached India’s Supreme Court, judges described the mark-ups as “carnage” and “extortion”. At a hearing on 29 September, they cited a cancer medicine supplied to hospitals for 2,700 rupees but carrying a price of 27,000 rupees.
Analysis by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority found trade mark-ups averaging 170% on some cancer drugs, with extreme examples exceeding 700%, the Guardian reported.
High costs can prevent patients from completing treatment. Ravi Kannan, a surgical oncologist and director of Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Silchar, Assam, said some families begin treatment but stop returning for chemotherapy or radiation because they cannot sustain the expense. He welcomed the decision conditionally: its value would be in more patients gaining access to the drugs they need.
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Jyotsna Singh, co-convener of the civil-society Working Group on Access to Medicines and Treatments, called for transparency and regulation throughout the medicine supply chain. She warned that hospitals might offset lower drug prices by increasing other charges. That is her forecast, not an observed result of the expanded cap.
The cancer-drug expansion has been imposed, but a broader cap remains unresolved. The Supreme Court has asked why the limit should not cover all non-patented medicines—those not protected by patents—and has given the government until 27 October 2026 to respond.
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