Doctors & medical experts hail move to exempt 3 cancer drugs from customs duty
New Delhi: Doctors and medical experts in Delhi lauded the move of fully exempting three more imported cancer medicines — transtuzumab deruxtecan, osimertinib and durvalumab — from the custom duties, while voicing unaddressed longstanding demands of the health sector.
Manufactured by AstraZeneca, these drugs that previously had 10 percent custom duty will now become more affordable for cancer patients.
For per vial of Trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu), patients currently spend around Rs. 1.6 lakh, which is used for treating advanced HER2-positive breast, stomach and lung cancers. Osimertinib, (Tagrisso), is used in treating EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer and costs Rs 1.5 lakh per strip of ten pills. Durvalumab (Imfinzi), works for non-small cell lung and bladder cancer costing Rs.1.5 lakh per 10ml.
Director of Surgical Oncology at CK Birla Hospital, Delhi, appreciated the move, saying, “All these cancers are quite common in India and detected in later stages in our country, so the exemption from basic customs duty could potentially reduce the price by 10-20%, resulting in improved access to advanced cancer treatments, reduced financial burden on patients and their families, potentially improving the treatment outcomes.”
Cheaper X-ray tubes, digital detectors
Additionally, the proposed changes to basic customs duties on X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors used in medical X-ray machines is expected to lower the cost of X-ray machines, benefiting patients and domestic manufacturers. “This change will reduce costs, encourage local sourcing, and enhance competitiveness,” said Dr. Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO of Fortis Healthcare.
However, Raghuvanshi pointed out several unaddressed issues in the budget, including increasing healthcare spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, prioritising healthcare as a national issue, promoting medical value travel, addressing indirect taxation, and rationalising GST with uniform rates and full input tax credit eligibility.
