Cancer, kidney, AIDS drugs sold at up to 70 times procurement cost: Karnataka Health Minister

Pointing out that high-cost medicines used to treat cancer, kidney ailments, and AIDS are being sold at prices up to “70 times higher” than the rates at which dealers and stockists procure them, Karnataka Health Minister U.T. Khader has written a letter to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, seeking national action against “abnormal gaps” in drug prices.

The Minister said dealers and stockists purchase advanced pharmaceuticals from manufacturers at heavily discounted wholesale landed rates, while the MRPs printed on the medicines are fixed at “inflated, highly disproportionate levels”. The letter said the gap between the procurement price and MRP was “sometimes 30 times to more than 70 times”.

Mr. Khader said that the issue was particularly concerning for in-patients, emergency and intensive-care patients, oncology patients, and those requiring implants, surgical consumables, and other hospital-based treatment, as they cannot realistically compare suppliers or defer purchases.