Bengaluru, 10 October

Karnataka has welcomed the proposed 30 per cent cap on trade margins for identified non-scheduled cancer medicines and urged the Centre to extend similar price controls to expensive life-saving drugs and medical equipment used to treat cardiac and kidney ailments.

Health Minister UT Khader on Saturday said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had directed the Union Health Ministry to submit, by 14 October, a list of cancer medicines to be covered, along with details of their profit margins.

The NPPA granted in-principle approval for the cap at its October 8 meeting, under Paragraph 19 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013. An expert committee under the Directorate General of Health Services is expected to recommend the medicines to be included.

The Centre estimates that the measure could reduce the maximum retail prices of several cancer medicines by 20 to 70 per cent, potentially saving patients around Rs 2,500 crore.

Calling it a significant development, Khader said the department's efforts to address the high cost of treatment were beginning to yield results. He cited instances of medicines costing Rs 3,000 being sold for Rs 25,000 and an injection costing Rs 5,000 being sold for Rs 65,000.

Cancer treatment often involves multiple injections, with patients sometimes requiring 10 to 12, pushing expenses into several lakhs of rupees, he said.

In a letter dated September 23 to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, Karnataka sought urgent national measures after identifying pricing discrepancies in 253 cancer medicines and medical consumables. The state's Food and Drug Safety Department compiled their manufacturing and landed costs and compared them with prices charged to consumers.

Karnataka has also sought to bring advanced chemotherapy, targeted therapy and other expensive cancer medicines under the national drug price regulation framework, impose comprehensive trade-margin limits and require hospitals and pharmacies to disclose purchase costs, MRPs and additional margins in patient bills.

A circular issued on October 1 asks healthcare institutions to include medicine purchase costs and MRPs in bills from November 1. The instructions are advisory.

The state government's push follows Supreme Court observations questioning why essential medicines, including cancer drugs, could not have their MRPs capped at 16 per cent above the price to retailer, as applicable to scheduled medicines.

Khader said Karnataka was compiling similar data on expensive cardiac and kidney medicines, medical consumables and equipment. Some machines cost between Rs 3 crore and Rs 60 crore, he said, adding that greater transparency could help reduce treatment costs while ensuring manufacturers were not unfairly disadvantaged.

He also flagged delays in action against companies licensed by the Centre, saying state authorities sometimes had to refer violations to central officials. A national-level meeting of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India officials was called on Saturday to discuss enforcement challenges affecting states.