New Delhi, October 18, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has capped trade margins on 137 non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs at 30 per cent of their maximum retail price (MRP), a move expected to reduce the prices of several cancer medicines by up to 70 per cent and improve affordability for patients, according to an official statement.
The intervention, carried out under the Department of Pharmaceuticals in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, is part of the regulator’s Trade Margin Rationalisation (TMR) exercise aimed at curbing excessive margins across the drug distribution chain.
The revised prices will come into effect on November 9, 2026. All manufacturers will be required to inform the NPPA of their revised prices within seven days of publication of the Gazette notification.
Manufacturers must also display the revised price lists on their websites and widely disseminate them to retailers and hospitals. Retailers and hospitals will be required to charge the reduced prices from November 9 and display the revised prices in their pharmacies. Hospitals must also prominently publish the updated prices on their websites.
Consumers can check the revised prices of medicines through the Pharma Sahi Daam app and the NPPA website.
The initiative is intended to make anti-cancer medicines more affordable and accessible, helping ease the financial burden on patients and their families while supporting the broader public-health objective of equitable access to cancer treatment.
According to the statement, the 137 identified non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs include immunotherapy medicines used to treat more than 20 types of cancer, Denosumab, used by breast and prostate cancer patients, and Pegfilgrastim, which helps prevent neutropenia in cancer patients. The list also includes Bevacizumab, an approved medicine for treating colon, ovarian and cervical cancers.
With the latest notification, the prices of widely used anti-cancer drugs such as Pembrolizumab, Durvalumab and Osimertinib are expected to become more affordable for patients.
The intervention builds on the NPPA’s 2019 pilot Trade Margin Rationalisation exercise, under which trade margins on 42 anti-cancer drugs were capped at 30 per cent. Following that exercise, the MRPs of 526 brands of non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines were reduced by up to 90 per cent.
“The present exercise extends this approach to a larger set of anti-cancer drugs, based on the list recommended by the Expert Committee under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS),” the statement said.
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