Karnataka Seeks Price Caps on More Life-Saving Drugs
10 Oct 2026 3:40 PM IST10 Oct 2026 3:40 PM IST
Karnataka on Saturday urged the Centre to extend proposed price controls on expensive, non-scheduled cancer medicines to other high-cost life-saving drugs used to treat cardiac and kidney ailments.
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Bengaluru: Karnataka on Saturday urged the Centre to extend proposed price controls on expensive, non-scheduled cancer medicines to other high-cost life-saving drugs used to treat cardiac and kidney ailments, welcoming the Supreme Court's observations on excessive mark-ups on essential medicines.
"The state government also hereby requests the Union Government to extend this capping to other essential life-saving medicines necessary for treatment of cardiac, kidney ailments etc., particularly high-cost drugs, to reduce the burden of treatment in terms of cost to the common man," the state government said.
The state's appeal follows the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority's (NPPA) in-principle approval to cap trade margins on identified non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines at 30 per cent of their maximum retail price (MRP), subject to finalisation of the list of medicines.
The Supreme Court had questioned why the MRP of essential medicines, including cancer drugs, could not be capped at 16 per cent above the price to retailer (PTR), as applicable to scheduled medicines under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013,
In a letter dated September 23 to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, Karnataka had sought urgent national measures after inspections identified pricing concerns in 253 medicines and medical consumables, citing substantial differences between procurement costs and prices charged to patients.
The state has also proposed bringing advanced chemotherapy, targeted therapy and other expensive cancer medicines under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, prescribing comprehensive trade-margin limits and making it mandatory for hospitals and pharmacies to disclose the purchase cost, MRP and additional margins in patient bills.
A circular issued to healthcare institutions on October 1 directs them to mention the purchase cost and MRP of medicines in bills from November 1. The instructions are advisory in nature.
The NPPA, at its meeting on October 8, granted in-principle approval for the proposed 30 per cent trade-margin cap on non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines identified under Paragraph 19 of the DPCO, 2013. An expert committee under the Directorate General of Health Services is expected to recommend the medicines to be covered by October 14.
The Centre estimates that the measure could reduce the MRP of several cancer medicines by 20 to 70 per cent, potentially saving patients around Rs 2,500 crore.
( Source : PTI )
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