Nagpur: Cancer drugs marked up 400 to 800 percent, FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe takes note
Cancer drugs in Nagpur are being sold at 400 to 800 percent above their wholesale cost, prompting FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe to act.
A cancer diagnosis in the family is devastating, and the cost of treatment that follows can break a household's finances. In Nagpur, it has emerged that cancer drugs are being sold to patients at prices far above their real cost, ruining families financially while shopkeepers, doctors and hospitals profit heavily.
The reason lies with drug company operators, who fix the Maximum Retail Price, or MRP, on medicines at will. The gap between the MRP and the actual wholesale price is so large that ordinary people have no way of knowing it exists. According to available information, the difference between the MRP of cancer drugs and their real cost or wholesale purchase rate ranges from 400 percent to 800 percent. This is being described not merely as profiteering but as direct economic exploitation of helpless patients.
One striking example has come to light: a drug that a pharmaceutical company sells to a wholesale dealer for Rs 7,000 is being charged to patients by hospitals and doctors at up to Rs 60,000, a profit of Rs 53,000 on a single medicine. Another drug that costs Rs 5,500 wholesale is being charged to patients at Rs 30,000. The government is aware of this gap but appears helpless to act, and that helplessness is turning into a crisis for patients and their families.
The number of cancer patients in Nagpur is rising steadily, with thousands buying medicines from hospitals every day. If the MRP of these drugs were fixed correctly, much of the patients' distress could be eased. FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has taken the initiative in this matter, raising fresh hope among patients' families.
It has also come to light that most hospitals run their own medicine stores, because the margin difference compared with outside shops is so large. Patients are forced to buy from these in-house stores, sometimes lured with discounts of 10 to 20 percent, even as shopkeepers and doctors make profits of 400 to 800 percent on the same drugs. Without this compulsion, patients could buy the same medicines at cheaper rates from the wholesale market.
Cancer drug prices in Nagpur district are sky high. Generic versions of these medicines exist, but doctors are unwilling to prescribe them. Several companies make drugs from the same formula, yet prices vary sharply, with one company's version priced at Rs 5,000 while another charges Rs 20,000 to 25,000 for the same drug. This pattern holds across most formulations.
It is being said that pharmaceutical companies use this inflated printed rate to offer hospitals, doctors and retailers heavy commissions and discounts, so that doctors prescribe their brand. Many large private hospitals buy drugs directly from companies at real rates but sell to patients at the full MRP. The MRP is deliberately kept very high to lure doctors and middlemen through cut practice, so that large commissions can be shared out.
