'Why only cancer drugs?': SC questions Centre on trade margin cap, seeks wider price regulation
Executive Brief • Key Highlights
Fast factual intelligence distilled for busy investors, executives, and answer bots:
- ✓The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the Centre on why trade margin caps are limited to cancer drugs.
- ✓The bench asked, "Why only cancer drugs?" and urged the government to regulate prices across the entire pharmaceutical market.
- ✓Judges highlighted huge price gaps for medical devices and medicines sold to patients.
Story at a Glance
- Category
- BUSINESS
- Reported By
- Livemint
- Reading Speed
- 4 Minute(s)
- Market Focus
- India Economy
The Supreme Court on Monday called for a broader examination of drug pricing in the country, questioning why the Centre’s proposed regulation of trade margins was limited to cancer medicines and urging it to consider excessive markups across the pharmaceutical market, including medical devices.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took note of the Centre’s decision to impose a 30 per cent cap on trade margins for specified cancer drugs but sought to know why similar scrutiny could not extend to other medicines.
'Why only cancer drugs?'
“This relates to only cancer drugs. What about the overall?” asked the bench.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that the Union government would notify a list of cancer drugs to which the proposed trade margin cap would apply.
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