SC asks govt to broaden inflated pricing review beyond oncology

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pressed the government to address excessive markups across medicines and medical devices, questioning why it has restricted the recent price-control measures to only anti-cancer drugs. Noting that the Centre recently decided to cap trade margins on select non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs at 30% of the maximum retail price (MRP), the court asked what steps it plans to tackle inflated pricing of other medicines.

"We are talking about all the drugs, not only cancer drugs. For an ordinary cardiac stent, Indian-made stent, price to retailers is ₹5,000 but maximum retail price is ₹25,000," a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta observed. "You put a cap of 16% and you'll reduce medical interventions by three-fourth. Doctors cause interventions to be done because the margins are so high."

It noted that the government approved the cap on the margin on sale of anti-cancer drugs only after "harsh observations" from the court. But cancer drugs are only the "tip of the iceberg," it added.


The court is hearing a petition seeking mandatory prescriptions of generic medicines, stricter initial price controls on non-scheduled drugs and a cap on the MRPs of medical devices.

The court asked about the benefits to patients by allowing manufacturers to fix maximum retail prices of medicines. "Give one reason why it is helpful to patients," the judges told solicitor general Tushar Mehta. "Why can't you control the entire regime? Can there be anything more important than this in the country?"

The court said there cannot be any justification for higher medicine prices.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhatti told the court that the government needs to balance medicine availability and market considerations while regulating drug prices.

"We cannot control the entire market ecosystem. With too much intervention, the market will suffer and it will affect the availability of medicines," she said, adding that pricing is only "one limb" of the policy.

Bhatti noted that India already has the lowest prices of medicines.

The Supreme Court will hear the matter further on October 27.