Centre has fixed trade margins of over 40 cancer drugs: Mandaviya

The government has fixed trade margins of over 40 costly cancer drugs following which prices have come down significantly, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. 


“We had to import cancer medicines but now India is capable of manufacturing it. We have introduced PLI scheme under which the manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) required for making cancer medicines have also started in India,” said Mandaviya while responding to a question during the Question Hour in the upper house.


Mandaviya added further that apart from that, as per requirement such medicines are imported but we have fixed the trade margins of 44 cancer medicines which are very costly. He said that after fixing the trade margins, the price of cancer treatment medicines have come down significantly, which is benefiting cancer patients.


The minister also informed the House that the MRPs of these cancer medicines have been capped in such a manner that it cannot be more than 60 per cent of the first price that a manufacturer sells to a distributor in India.


On the question of what steps taken by the government on reports of about 175 healthcare organisations refusing to honour and clear bills of ex-servicemen under the Central Government Health Scheme, health minister assured the house that government will look into the matter. The minister also assured that issues faced by senior retired journalists, whose bills have not been cleared under CGHS, will also be addressed.