NEW DELHI, JUNE 12 — India’s drug pricing regulator has authorized an immediate price increase of up to 50% for critical chemotherapy drugs, anti-tetanus injections, and routine childhood vaccines. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority issued three separate gazette notifications on Thursday revising the ceiling rates, citing a steep rise in active pharmaceutical ingredient costs and the urgent need to stabilize domestic manufacturing supplies.
The pricing watchdog invoked emergency provisions under Paragraph 19 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, to permit a one-time 50% upward revision for Carboplatin and Cisplatin. These two platinum-based injections serve as frontline treatments for various solid tumors. Under the new guidelines, the maximum price for Carboplatin 10 mg/ml has been fixed at ₹90.74 per ml, while Cisplatin 1 mg/ml has been adjusted to ₹10.89 per ml.
Medical institutions and major oncology centers had recently reported severe shortages of these formulations. The pricing authority noted that sustained escalation in raw material costs had rendered production unviable for drugmakers under previous price controls, creating a supply gap that risked forcing patients toward significantly more expensive alternative therapies.
“Unviability of these formulations should not lead to a situation where these drugs become unavailable in the market and the public is forced to switch to expensive alternatives,” the regulatory authority stated. It noted that the new caps will undergo a formal review in six months to monitor manufacturing trends and raw material fluctuations.
In a parallel order, the regulator granted an identical 50% increase for Anti-Tetanus Immunoglobulin injections after the sole domestic manufacturer, Bharat Serums & Vaccines Limited, appealed a previous price cut. The revised rate positions a 250 IU vial at ₹1,912.02 and a 500 IU vial at ₹2,881.19. The company demonstrated that its dependence on imported active components, paired with global currency fluctuations, had generated negative production margins.
The third notification updated the ceiling prices for three essential pediatric immunizations produced by the Serum Institute of India, including the BCG vaccine and treatments for Measles and Measles-Rubella. The adjustments remove a previous 17.10% market-monopoly reduction following a Department of Pharmaceuticals directive that classified the biologicals as vital to public health infrastructure. The new pricing sets the BCG vaccine at ₹9.89 per dose, the Measles-Rubella combination at ₹87.93 per vial, and the standalone Measles vaccine at ₹62.00 per vial.
The regulatory agency stated that all pharmaceutical companies must align their retail rates with the new ceilings immediately. Companies failing to comply or overcharging consumers will face financial penalties, including the recovery of overcharged amounts with accrued interest under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
