NEW DELHI — Revised prices for 1,364 anti-cancer drug formulations took effect across India on Monday, November 9, after the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority capped the trade margins on 137 cancer medicines at 30 percent, the government said. Some prices fell by more than half, and the steepest single cut was 96.45 percent.
The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers said 85 pharmaceutical companies had reported revised maximum retail prices for 1,364 formulations covering 121 of the 137 drugs as of November 8. Of those, 679 brands were cut by more than 50 percent. The government estimates the changes will save patients and families about Rs3,540 crore a year. That figure is a projection, not money already saved.
A trade margin is the gap between what a medicine costs as it leaves the manufacturer and the maximum price printed on the pack for the patient. In India’s cancer market that gap had grown very large on some drugs, because these 137 medicines sit outside the usual list of price-controlled essential drugs. The cap, recommended by an expert committee set up by the Directorate General of Health Services on October 17, limits the whole chain of distributors and retailers to 30 percent.
The covered medicines include immunotherapy drugs used in more than 20 types of cancer, Denosumab, used in breast and prostate cancer care, Pegfilgrastim, given to reduce infection risk during chemotherapy, and Bevacizumab, used for colon, ovarian and cervical cancers, according to the government. Reported price lists show one widely used Bevacizumab brand falling from about Rs25,995 to about Rs3,318, a cut of roughly 87 percent.
Why it matters: cancer treatment in India is paid for largely out of pocket, and the price of a single course of a modern drug can exceed a family’s yearly income. A margin cap does not make treatment cheap, and it does not cover the cost of diagnosis, surgery or hospital care. But on the medicines it covers, it removes a layer of markup that had nothing to do with the cost of making the drug.
There is a limit patients should understand. The cap controls what traders and retailers may add; it does not cap the price the manufacturer itself sets. Reporting on the change notes that the most expensive patented therapies may fall by less, because their price is set at the factory gate, not in the distribution chain.
What happens next: no chemist or hospital pharmacy may charge more than the revised price printed for a covered pack. Patients can check the correct price on the pack itself, through the government’s Pharma Sahi Daam mobile application, or on the pricing authority’s website, and the remaining 16 drugs of the 137 are expected to file revised prices in the same process. Sources: Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers statement, November 9, 2026; National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority.
