He sought a national study comparing the printed MRP, manufacturer/importer price, hospital’s net acquisition price, and the price ultimately billed to patients for selected high-value medicines, medical devices, and consumables.
Karnataka’s Health Minister U.T. Khader said that while the existing MRP framework prevents medicines from being sold above the printed MRP, it does not address situations where the MRP itself has little relation to the actual institutional transaction price.
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.
The letter said that while the existing MRP framework prevents medicines from being sold above the printed MRP, it does not address situations where the MRP itself has little relation to the actual institutional transaction price, adding that hospitals retain an excessive undisclosed margin.
Mr. Khader sought a national study comparing the printed MRP, manufacturer/importer price, hospital’s net acquisition price, and the price ultimately billed to patients for selected high-value medicines, medical devices, and consumables. He also proposed that the patient-facing price of products supplied through hospitals be capped at the lower end of the applicable statutory price, MRP or the hospital’s net acquisition cost plus a notified and reasonable service margin and applicable taxes.
The Minister said Karnataka would “cooperate with any pilot or national framework” and could, within its powers, make private hospitals disclose more information, require detailed bills for patients, and set up a system to handle complaints locally. However, he said the Centre needs to fix the basic problem — the large difference between what hospitals pay for medicines, the MRP printed on them and what patients are finally charged.
