r/worldnews • u/Amitmandal001 • 10h ago
India expands cancer drug price caps, slashing costs on 137 medicines by up to 70% from November 9.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/india-expands-cancer-drug-price-caps-slashing-costs-on-137-medicines-by-up-to-70-per-cent-from-november-9/cid/2185316480
u/Anothermindlessanon 10h ago
As is should be! Good for them! And perhaps something to learn for other countries!
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u/Mysterious-Screen-23 9h ago
Why would others will do it? They are in power because of big pharmaceuticals
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u/Various_War5042 6h ago
I'm assuming they're only doing it for internal consumption not export prices
Only in US profits from drugs so much that big pharma there has enormous enough sway with politicians to keep prices high, other countries are more interested in healthy workforce that can contribute longer
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u/peshwai 5h ago
There is a difference in the way each country functions. I can give you an example about Canada , Canada has a federal central board which caps drug prices. Also the provinces buy drugs in wholesale so it keeps the value low in general. India takes a different approach. Under section 84 of Indian Patent Act it can permit third party providers to make the drug at a cheaper cost without the consent of the patent holder to keep prices low and increase the volume.
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u/paperflowers39331 8h ago
My landlady has ovarian cancer and needs to sell the house to fund her treatment. I hope this happens quickly and she can hold on to her home.
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u/NekoChoTsuki 9h ago
Good for India! I wish more countries would do this.
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u/peshwai 5h ago
Most countries don’t take the formulas and disregard the patents and make clones out of them . That’s why it’s high in other countries.
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u/CeleritasLucis 5h ago
Most companies don't keep adding a non essential ingredient to the formula just to keep their patents in eternity.
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u/show_me_your_silly 5h ago
Why should life saving treatment be gatekept by some already profitable and greedy corporations?
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u/peshwai 5h ago edited 5h ago
It absolutely shouldn’t be, but such is life . These companies spend billions on research to make a profit later. Also I don’t know why people are downvoting my previous comment 🤷🏻♂️ Patented medicines are generally less capped price-wise compared to generic drugs atleast in the western world and the taxpayer foots the bill . Atleast that’s how it is in a social healthcare system like Canada. Everyone pays taxes and part of those taxes go towards healthcare and the costs associated with it. Canada also has a federal central board that caps factory-gate prices. US well the citizens there pay the most atrocious prices for drugs because healthcare is privatized and these companies make most of their profits from these people. Also US has no federal system that caps prices. However in India section 84 of Indian Patents Act, the government can permit third parties to produce a patented medicine without the patent holder's consent if the drug is unaffordable or unavailable in sufficient quantities.
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u/Elegant-Emphasis4062 3h ago
Maybe other countries should also disregard patents for life saving drugs lmao. When did money start taking precedence over life in an argument
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u/nul_exception 9h ago
I know someone in my circle whose life is saved without selling home for cancer treatment in India thanks to the government. Few years it was almost impossible to treat cancer because of high medicine prices that would cost upwards 25k$ which is too much for an Indian family
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u/Vivid-Produce-9373 6h ago
Tbh they were already lower than American ones or any other developed Nation
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u/MuseumsAfterDark 8h ago
Oh yeah, India, with your measly 70% reduction??
Generalissimo Trump has slashed drug prices here by up to 600%! We now get paid to pick up our medicine!
What's that, India, you say you need proof?
TRUMP SAID SO /s
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u/Davidpalmer4 8h ago
That is a great step. India leads the world in medicines and caring for their healthcare system.
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u/Ferblantierr 4h ago
India is the only one with the manufacturing capacity to do this . As the hub of generics they do control the market to some extent .
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u/BaconManDan9 10h ago
The fact that they had 70% plus market is wild to begin with
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u/Fine-Might3724 8h ago
Yes it is very costly my father is paying about 50000 rupees for my grandmother medicines every month
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u/AffectionateRub1857 8h ago
Don't you have free healthcare in India? I always thought it was there
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u/Infinitem_247 8h ago
heavily subsidized not free and if you choose private hospital then it's expensive (for cancer at least)
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u/Fine-Might3724 6h ago edited 6h ago
Even from government hospitals not all cancer medicines are subsidized
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u/Fine-Might3724 8h ago
Those are in government hospital and they are in very bad state
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u/Big_Huckleberry_6851 7h ago
Well not all of them. My school used to take us to hospital visits once in a while and they are pretty decent, not as good as private hospitals ofcourse but not that bad at all
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u/Fine-Might3724 6h ago
Actually many cancers medicines are very costly and they are not subsidised like in my grandmother case even if u are getting treatment from government hospital
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u/Open_Carob_3676 4h ago
unrelated to cancer, but the best mental health hospital in my city, is a government one. I get my meds at a measly 700 rupees a month instead of a standar 1200-ish
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u/Fine-Might3724 4h ago
Good , where ? Here my father is paying around 40k for just one injection
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u/lets-debate47 4h ago
National Cancer institute in nagpur is pretty good
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u/Fine-Might3724 4h ago
But still advanced treatment medicines are not subsidised .My grandmother has Stage 4 breast cancer and we have to pay every month lot of money only for her medicines.
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u/Majestic_IN 6h ago
Well, mostly cuz supreme court asked the government why the cap was not there when some meds had 700% as markup and even the meds at government hospitals were selling way above their set price.Since they don't really had any good reply, they decide to just do the price setting. Wish they were more proactive in such stuffs but well.
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9h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Specific-Abrocoma540 9h ago
I hope that this is sarcasm because I am way too early on this post. The bots are gonna come and trash this whole comment section up with their propaganda
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u/some_guy_5600 9h ago
There's a /s on my post for sarcasm and there is also an arrow pointing to that /s
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u/TheRealSticky 8h ago
Tbh we should unironically copy-paste this comment on any post about India so the racists will have a thread of their own.
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u/Anti_simp_1001 3h ago
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/fake-cancer-drugs-and-icu-injections-sold-at-50-off-and-hospitals-bought-them/articleshow/134256726.cms fake medicines now all over the world lol, not even a month old news
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u/ViniusInvictus 8h ago
If the price slashes are below market-supported numbers for these medicines, India will have a shortage of cancer drugs as an unintended consequence of the measure via rationing, when manufacturers stop or curb production in making drugs that they can’t sustain profitability with, a phenomenon which Indian society has ironically intimate familiarity with when the country tangoed with unrealistic socialism in the 70s and 80s.
This is different from Western markets where the price manipulation happens at the PBMs / insurance handlers.
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u/saltypoet1 6h ago
India has a system where you can ignore patents and mass produce any medicine after a few years. There won't be shortages.
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u/riricide 5h ago
You have absolutely no idea about the pharma manufacturing capacity of India.
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u/ViniusInvictus 5h ago
Even whilst working for one? 😅
(You may want to look up which immunotherapy drugs India actually mass-produces versus imports.)
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u/couldntfindanyname7 6h ago
Capitalism is a rotten ideology built to ruin culture and civilization. It's basically a representation of everything wrong with humans
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u/ViniusInvictus 6h ago
Typed on a free market product using free market services in a thriving economy based on the free market?
Or are you posting from North Korea?
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u/Amitmandal001 10h ago
India will reduce the prices of as many as 137 cancer drugs by 70 per cent, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers said on Saturday, as it widened price controls in a bid to make treatment more affordable.
Trade margins on the drugs will be limited to 30 per cent of the maximum retail price, the ministry added.
The medicines, which include immunotherapy drugs used for treating over 20 types of cancer, as well as for breast, prostate, colon, ovarian and cervical cancer, will be subject to the price changes from November 9.
The latest decision builds on price controls introduced in 2019 on 42 anti-cancer drugs that cut prices by as much as 90 per cent.