Supreme Court calls drug price regulator totally defunct, asks why uniform 16 percent margin cannot apply to all medicines

The Supreme Court on 27 October questioned the Centre over the wide gap between medicine prices and retail costs, describing the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority as seemingly totally defunct. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta pointed to a medicine with a price to retailer of Rs 15 carrying a maximum retail price of Rs 250, and asked why a uniform 16 per cent trade margin could not apply to all medicines after the Centre said anti-cancer drug margins were capped at 30 per cent. The court also cited a cancer injection available for Rs 11,000 that a hospital charged Rs 1.30 lakh for, and reserved its verdict on two petitions seeking stricter price controls. Sources: Mathrubhumi, Telegraph India. (English, Telegraphindia)

• The Supreme Court on 27 October questioned the Centre over the wide gap between medicine prices and retail costs, describing the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority as seemingly totally defunct.
• A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta pointed to a medicine with a price to retailer of Rs 15 carrying a maximum retail price of Rs 250, and asked why a uniform 16 per cent trade margin could not apply to all
• The court also cited a cancer injection available for Rs 11,000 that a hospital charged Rs 1.30 lakh for, and reserved its verdict on two petitions seeking stricter price controls.