Parliamentary panel seeks price cap on cancer drugs

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee has recommended that the price caps enforced by the govt, for example, the existing 30% trade margin cap on 42 essential anti-cancer drugs – should be extended to cover cancer vaccines, immunotherapy, and oral chemotherapy. It has also suggested that quality of generic drugs available in the market should be monitored citing hesitancy among medical professionals in prescribing them.According to the committee, headed by Narain Dass Gupta, though the govt has taken significant steps in recent years towards strengthening the regulatory framework for governing the pricing of cancer drugs and promoting affordability, a substantial segment of such drugs remains beyond the ambit of current price control mechanisms. “The number of anti-cancer medicines under price control has increased from 40 (in 2011) to 63 (in 2022), still, a significant number of oncology medications are not included under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, and thus are not subject to any statutory price ceiling,” the committee has pointed out and said that this regulatory non-inclusion has led to excessive and often unaffordable pricing. “In view of this, the committee strongly recommends that the govt undertake urgent measures to expand the scope of the DPCO to include the widest possible range of cancer drugs,” the committee on petitions has recommended.