42 more cancer drugs under price control, profit margin cap at 30%

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has said the profit margin of some anti-cancer drugs has been capped at 30 per cent. The authority has invoked the “extraordinary powers” it had used to cap prices of coronary stents, the NPPA said in a notification.

Under Para 19 of the Drug Price Control Order, 2019, the NPPA can slash prices of drugs that are not part of schedule 1.

Non-scheduled formulations of 42 drugs, which are used to treat cancer have been brought under the price cap. Previously, 57 anti-cancer drugs were under the price control. The trade margin cap would mean 355 brands are under price control.

The move comes after an expert committee on trade margin rationalisation recommended that prices of 42 anti-cancer drugs be capped. The committee had observed that margins go up to 1,800 per cent on drugs.

The committee will be headed by Vinod Paul, senior NITI Aayog official. The chief economic advisor from the Ministry of Finance, department of health research, vice-chairperson of the NLEM committee, joint secretary from the DIPP among others, will form the committee.DIPP’s role in the committee will be to ensure that India does not infringe any international agreement. The committee will identify more such drugs where it is found that trade margins are high.

The government was previously trying to fix trade margins in the pharmaceutical policy, but the policy was scrapped and the government decided to cap margins of drugs individually based on the requirement. The government is also considering this capping on medical devices. A number of devices being considered are non-scheduled.

The NPPA has the right to cap prices of scheduled drugs, or use extraordinary powers in case of other drugs.