Cancer drug priced at Rs 28,000 to cost Rs 4,840 under new rules

The NPPA has revised prices for 137 non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs after capping trade margins at 30 per cent. Effective November 9, the measure is expected to reduce prices by up to 70 per cent and ease treatment costs.

Hyderabad: For cancer patients struggling with the crushing financial toll of oncology wards, a cancer drug that once cost Rs 28,000 will soon cost under Rs 5,000.

In a market intervention set to take effect from November 9, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) published brand-by-brand compliance data, enforcing a 30 per cent trade margin cap on 137 non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs. The margins on these drugs, which were added at every level before reaching the patients, have been removed.

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The newly released pricing schedules expose the scale of the inflation patients have been absorbing. For years, intermediary supply chains routinely added margins on the wholesale cancer drugs ranging from 170 per cent to upwards of 700 per cent before they reached the patients.

The pricing revisions of cancer drugs bring relief to some of the country’s most heavily prescribed therapeutic categories.

Kidney cancer, gastrointestinal and blood cancers:

Long-term therapies for kidney cancer and gastrointestinal tumors have seen dramatic downward revisions. Sunitinib, widely prescribed under brands like SUNISAM (50 mg, 7 capsules), dropped from an MRP of Rs 3,558.75 down to a revised Rs 805.04. Similarly, the cost of Sutinat 50 mg (28 capsules) dropped from Rs 10,000 to Rs 4,026.37. In blood cancer treatments, Nilotinib formulations under NINLIB (150 mg, 30 capsules) fell steeply from Rs 4,161 to just Rs 1,171.

Prostate Cancer Care:

Abiraterone Acetate, a well-known therapy for metastatic prostate carcinoma, had corrections. Tablets under the brand ABIRALIVE (250 mg, 120s) plummeted from an MRP of Rs 28,000 to a revised Rs 4,840. Similarly, Abirapro 250 mg dropped from Rs 28,744 to Rs 5,768. For advanced-stage options like Enzandro 40 mg (28 capsules), prices tumbled from Rs 10,890 down to RS 3,108.39.

Specialised Injectables and Palliative Care:

Major price cuts also occurred in hospital-administered supportive injectables. Thiotepa 100 mg under the brand SAMTEPA saw its price slashed from Rs 80,071.86 to Rs 7,150.33. In monoclonal antibodies, Bevarest 100 mg dropped from Rs 19,288 to Rs 3,843.84, while CIZUMAB 400 MG fell from Rs 57,816 to Rs 10,211.

Breast and Lung cancer:

Palbociclib (long-term maintenance therapy), widely used for advanced breast cancer under brands like ISOGEN (100 mg), dropped from Rs 24,505 to just Rs 2,068.92. The prices of standard chemotherapy vials for lung cancer, such as Pemxcel 500 mg, were cut from Rs 4,345.70 to Rs 852.19.

Guarding Against Shortages:

To prevent pharmaceutical companies and stockists from hoarding to create artificial shortages, the regulators have made continuous production of all 137 drugs legally mandatory. The MRP of select patented and sole-proprietary imported cancer molecules will, however, continue to be sold at their previous prices.