Cancer cases rising, prices of essential drugs kept in check: Nadda

The government makes all efforts to ensure affordable and accessible treatment is available for cancer patients amid a rise in cases in India, Health Minister JP Nadda said on Friday.

Replying to supplementary questions during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Nadda said the government made all efforts to ensure that affordable and accessible treatment was available to the patients.

"The number of cancer cases is going up, it is increasing by almost 2.5 per cent every year," Nadda said.

In men, cases of oral and lung cancer are on the up while more women are getting breast cancer, he added.

More than 1.55 million cancer cases are being registered every year, Nadda said.

"There is a list of 131 essential cancer medicines, which are in Schedule 1, (that) are monitored and (their) pricing is decided by the government. These are the commonly used medicines," Nadda said.

He said patients cumulatively saved around Rs 294 crore due to this price control.

"There are 28 combinations, which are not in this list but the NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) and the government have controlled their pricing as well," he said.

"We have tried to make cancer drugs affordable," he added.

Responding to another question on healthcare infrastructure, Nadda said the government was apprised of the matter and expansion of medical colleges were happening so that there could be more doctors.

"There should be a balance in quality and quantity of medical education. We are trying to go as fast as we can but, at the same time, (we) do not want to compromise on the quality of medical doctors," he said.

Nadda informed the House that the number of medical colleges had gone up from 387 in 2014 to 731 at present while the number of MBBS seats rose from 51,348 seats to 1,12,112 (1.12 lakh) during the same period.

The number of postgraduate seats for medical students has gone up from 31,185 in 2014 to 72,627 at present, he added.