Supreme Court urges capping trade margins across ₹3L/cr pharma market
The Supreme Court is urging a cap on trade margins on how much pharmacies and companies can mark up prices on all medicines, hoping to stop huge price jumps, especially for life-saving drugs like those for cancer.
Right now, ceiling prices are fixed on 3,482 medicines, while they represent roughly about 18% of the ₹3 lakh crore domestic pharma retail market, and the rest can see prices skyrocket because there's no limit on markups.
Drugmakers and AIOCD propose ₹100+ caps
Drugmakers and the chemist body, AIOCD, actually support rethinking these margins.
They're proposing caps only for pricier medicines (₹100 or more per unit), with wholesalers getting 10% and retailers 20% on all medicines.
After the Kerala high court expressed concern and Karnataka flagged the 10 to 52x markup on cancer drugs and consumables, there's more pressure than ever to make medicine pricing fairer and more transparent.