Cancer Drug Prices Soar 70x, Health Minister Demands Action

Karnataka's Health Minister, U.T. Khader, has written to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda regarding the significant price discrepancies in high-cost medicines. He highlighted that medications for cancer, kidney diseases, and AIDS are being sold at rates up to 70 times higher than their procurement cost. Dealers and stockists acquire these pharmaceuticals from manufacturers at heavily discounted wholesale prices, yet the MRPs are set at disproportionately inflated levels, often 30 to over 70 times the acquisition cost.

This practice particularly affects in-patients, oncology patients, and those requiring intensive care, who cannot easily compare prices. The existing MRP framework, while preventing sales above the printed price, does not address inflated MRPs themselves, suggesting hospitals may be retaining substantial undisclosed margins. Minister Khader has requested a national study comparing acquisition costs to patient billed prices for selected high-value items.

He proposed capping patient-facing prices at the lower of the statutory price, MRP, or the hospital's net acquisition cost plus a reasonable service margin. Karnataka has offered to cooperate with any national framework, suggesting measures like mandatory hospital disclosures and detailed patient billing within its state powers. However, the core issue of vast price differences requires central government intervention.