Fixed trade margins of over 40 costly cancer drugs, price reduced: Mandaviya

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

Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, the minister also said India now has the capability to manufacture cancer treatment drugs, which are otherwise imported.

"We had to import cancer medicines but now India is capable of manufacturing it. We have introduced PLI scheme under which the manufacturing of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) required for making cancer medicines have also started in India," Mandaviya said.

"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.

The minister 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.

"After fixing the trade margins, the price of cancer treatment medicines have come down significantly, which is benefiting cancer patients," Mandaviya asserted.

He was responding to a question by DMK MP M Shanmugam on what steps have been taken by the government to reduce the prices of imported cancer drugs and medical devices like stents which poor people are unable to afford.

When asked by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O' Brien what steps the government have taken on reports of about 175 healthcare organisations refusing to honour and clear bills of ex-servicemen under the Central Government Health Scheme, Mandaviya said the 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.