Rs 5,000 Stent Sold for Rs 25,000: SC Slams Steep Markups, Demands Price Cap Across All Medicines, Not Just Cancer Drugs

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday called for a broader examination of drug pricing in the country, questioning why the Centre's proposed regulation of trade margins was limited to cancer medicines and urging it to consider excessive markups across the pharmaceutical market, including medical devices. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took note of the Centre's decision to impose a 30 per cent cap on trade margins for specified cancer drugs but sought to know why similar scrutiny could not extend to other medicines. "This relates to only cancer drugs. What about the overall?" asked the bench. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that the Union government would notify a list of cancer drugs to which the proposed trade margin cap would apply. The list would be periodically updated to include additional anti-cancer medicines in accordance with market developments and public health considerations, excluding inexpensive drugs, he said. The bench, however, questioned the limited scope of the measure and cited instances of substantial differences between the prices at which medicines and medical devices were sold to retailers and their maximum retail prices (MRP). "A drip line for saline, MRP is Rs 11, and it is selling for Rs 270," the bench observed, highlighting the disparity in pricing. The apex court also referred to an Indian-made cardiac stent with a Price to Retailer (PTR) of Rs 5,000 but an MRP of Rs 25,000. Also Read: PhRMA Challenges Trump's GLOBE Rule on Medicare Drug Prices, Calls It Illegal Overreach "If you put a cap of 16 per cent, you will reduce (medical) interventions by three-fourths. Doctors cause interventions to be done because the margins are so high," remarked the bench. Solicitor General responded that cardiac stents were already subject to price caps. The bench further cited the pricing of Azithromycin, referring to an MRP of Rs 78.29 and a figure of Rs 2,850 for PTS, and asked the government to explain how such pricin

Verbatim from Medical Dialogues's own feed — "Rs 5,000 Stent Sold for Rs 25,000: SC Slams Steep Markups, Demands Price Cap Across All Medicines, Not Just Cancer Drugs"