The move addresses excessive trade mark-ups and aims to improve affordability while ensuring continued availability of these life-saving medicines, the sources said.
New Delhi:The government has decided to cap trade margins at 30 per cent of MRP for all non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs, covering branded and generic, domestic and imported, patented and non-patented medicines, government sources said on Thursday.
The move addresses excessive trade mark-ups and aims to improve affordability while ensuring continued availability of these life-saving medicines, the sources said.
The decision, which is expected to be implemented later this month, will bring down prices of 110 anti-cancer drugs, including 35 patented medicines.
Meanwhile,the government has proposed that prescription drugs, including those with a high potential for abuse and addiction, cannot be advertised without prior approval of the Centre.
The Union health ministry, in a draft notification issued on September 28 and published in the Gazette of India, has proposed inserting a new sub-rule in Rule 65 of the Drugs Rules, 1945.
“No advertisement of the drugs specified in Schedule H, Schedule H1 or Schedule X shall be made except with the previous sanction of the Central Government,” the draft rules stated.
The proposed Drugs (Amendment) Rules, 2026, will come into force on the date of their final publication in the Official Gazette,containing the draft was made available to the public.
The draft has been issued under the powers conferred by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, after consultation with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board.