4 November 2026 (Navroze Bureau) Cancer treatment in India continues to place a significant financial burden on patients and their families, with the prices of several life-saving medicines remaining beyond the reach of ordinary households. Despite the government’s 2019 intervention to control excessive trade margins on cancer medicines, markups have reportedly climbed to as high as 700% in certain cases. The latest findings have once again raised questions about the effectiveness of India’s medicine price-control system and whether fresh government measures can provide lasting relief to cancer patients.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has now introduced another round of price-control measures covering 137 non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines. The move aims to reduce excessive trade margins and make essential cancer treatments more affordable. However, the experience of the previous intervention has raised concerns about whether these reductions will remain effective over the coming years.
Why Are Cancer Drug Prices So High?
Cancer treatment often involves expensive medicines that patients need to take over extended periods. Depending on the type and stage of cancer, treatment may involve chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy and other specialised medicines.
The cost becomes particularly challenging when patients require expensive injections or medicines that are not covered under existing government price controls.
According to NPPA market analysis, non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines carry an average trade markup of approximately 170%, with some products recording markups of 700% or more.
The Indian cancer medicine market is estimated to be worth around ₹12,500 crore annually. Scheduled medicines, which are already subject to government-fixed ceiling prices, account for approximately ₹2,250 crore of this market. The remaining market includes non-scheduled medicines, where excessive trade margins have become a major concern.
Prices can also vary significantly depending on whether patients purchase medicines from retail pharmacies, hospital pharmacies or online platforms.
What Happened After the Government’s 2019 Intervention?
In February 2019, the government introduced trade margin rationalisation for 42 non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines through the NPPA.
Under the initiative, trade margins were restricted to 30%, resulting in substantial reductions in the maximum retail prices of several cancer medicines.
The intervention covered hundreds of brands and helped reduce the prices of 390 anti-cancer medicine brands by as much as 87%, according to the government. The exercise was expected to generate annual savings of approximately ₹800 crore for patients.
However, the latest market analysis indicates that the benefits were not sustained across the medicines covered by the earlier exercise.
An analysis of 50 medicines from the earlier intervention found that 45 had markups exceeding the equivalent 42.8% level used for the 2019 margin restriction. In 41 cases, markups exceeded 100%, while some reached approximately 700%.
One example involved Cizumab, a 400 mg bevacizumab injection, which reportedly carried a markup of around 709%. Its price has now been reduced from approximately ₹57,816 to ₹10,211 under the latest exercise.