Government planning to control prices of anti-cancer drugs

Government planning to control prices of anti-cancer drugs

In a bid to make a dozen anti-cancer drugs affordable to the masses, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has invited comments from the pharmaceutical industry and other stakeholders to bring these drugs under price control.

As per the recommendations by Mumbai's Tata Memorial Centre, drugs such as Trastuzumab, Erlotinib, Irinotecan, Lenalidomide, Capecitabine, All Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA), Bendamustine, Rituximab, Temozolomide (TMZ), Zoledronic acid, Megestrol acetate and Letrozole should be added to the national list of essential medicines.

According to NPPA, the recommendations are based on factors such as the ability of the drug to improve the overall survival (OS) chances of the patient. The other factors include higher priority to drugs that have the potential to cure a fraction of patients versus those that have been proven to only prolong lives; the number of patients potentially impacted in India based on data from population based cancer registries of the National Cancer Registry Programme; the non-availability of alternative medications of the same or other pharmacological class that can act as a reasonable 'substitute'; and price of the drug to patients and the differential in price between various brands.

Out of Rs 75,000 crore domestic pharma industry, the estimated size of the anti-cancer market is around Rs 4000-5000 crore, with nearly 11 lakh cancer patients across the country, said industry experts.

According to an expert, NPPA has taken a cautious step and asked for recommendations and suggestions from the industry and all other stakeholders. "While the move is welcome, the industry may not be very happy with such recommendations. Because of this, some expensive drugs may come under price control, affecting the pharma companies' margins and profitability." NPPA has further said that any comments on the above draft recommendations for addition and deletion from NLEM 2011 may be submitted within a period of 2 weeks from the date of the notice.

Ranjit Kapadia, senior VP – pharma, Centrum Broking, said, "The consumers will definitely be benefited if oncology drugs are brought under price control. But what would be the impact on the pharma companies is difficult to estimate at the moment. It will vary from one company to other, depending on the percentage of oncology drug portfolio of a particular company and how many units are sold in a year."

Kapadia further said that the anti-cancer market is a small market and a downward price revision is unlikely to impact too many companies. "If such a revision happens, pioneers such as Natco, Cipla, Dr. Reddy's and Biocon may get impacted in a much higher way. NPPA has only asked for recommendations which the companies can oppose, if they feel it will hurt them strongly."