{"id":789092,"date":"2026-10-02T00:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/789092\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T00:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:24:12","slug":"karnataka-flags-wide-disparity-between-landing-cost-and-mrp-of-high-cost-drugs-and-medical-consumables-seeks-central-government-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/789092\/","title":{"rendered":"Karnataka Flags Wide Disparity Between Landing Cost And MRP Of High-Cost Drugs And Medical Consumables, Seeks Central Government Intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Karnataka Government during the recent inspection on the Hospitals treating cancer where high cost drugs are used brought to the urgent attention of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) the alarming disparity between the institutional landing costs and the Maximum Retail Prices (MRP) of high-value medicines, cancer drugs, antibiotics, and hospital consumables supplied to hospitals across the state.<\/p>\n<p>Recent investigations by the Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA) have revealed that pharmaceutical companies are supplying medicines to hospitals at heavily discounted institutional (landing) prices, while patients are being billed at or near the printed MRP-resulting in markups ranging from 10 times to over 52 times the actual procurement cost.<\/p>\n<p>The Honourable Health and Family Welfare Minister in his letter has written to Union Health Minister, seeking a need for national action against exorbitant patient billing as Maximum Retail Price for medicines used for cancer treatment, medical devices and consumables procured by Hospitals at Institutional discount price. During the inspection 253 drugs where extreme pricing anomalies are identified have been provided.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Latest and Breaking News on NDTV\" id=\"story_image_main\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ioqk9e14_drug-prices_625x300_01_October_26.jpg\" title=\"Latest and Breaking News on NDTV\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Karnataka Government has requested the Central Government for the following:<\/p>\n<p>\tMandate transparency in institutional pricing by requiring hospitals to display both landing cost and MRP on patient bills.<br \/>\n\tExpand the list of drugs under price control under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO)<br \/>\n\tRegulate trade margins on essential high-value medicines and consumables<br \/>\n\tConstitute an inter-ministerial expert group<br \/>\n\tDirect a national data study<br \/>\n\tAmend or supplement the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013<br \/>\n\tRationalisation of Trade Margins<br \/>\n\tMandatory Cost-to-MRP Transparency<br \/>\n\tExpanded National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM)<br \/>\n\tTreat all forms of back-end consideration as part of acquisition cost<br \/>\n\tCreate an audit and enforcement mechanism<\/p>\n<p>The following in the regulatory at present:<\/p>\n<p>\tScheduled drugs (under DPCO): NPPA fixes ceiling price with 16% retailer margin<br \/>\n\tNon-scheduled drugs: No cap on retailer margin; MRP printed by manufacturer is the only limit<br \/>\n\tMedical devices &amp; consumables: Limited price control; most devices not under DPCO<br \/>\n\tHospital pharmacies: No specific regulation mandating pass-through of institutional discounts<\/p>\n<p>Based on the direction of the Honourable Minister the Food Safety and Drug Administration, Drugs Enforcement Officers, Karnataka once again conducted a special verification drive on 25 September 2026 and 26 September 2026 at various wholesale premises, hospitals and other establishments in Bengaluru and at district locations across Karnataka.<\/p>\n<p>The preliminary observations indicate that, in respect of certain high cost drugs, medical devices and hospital consumables, there were substantial differences between the landing cost, the MRP and the actual sale price at different stages of the supply chain. The inspections cover more than 768 items in consumables and another 189 high cost drugs. The same will be brought to the notice of the Central Government.<\/p>\n<p>The Food Safety and Drug Administration Department will continue the special verification exercise in a phased manner. In the next phase, enforcement and verification activities will focus, among other categories, on:<\/p>\n<p>\tAnti-retroviral drugs<br \/>\n\tHigher-generation and critical antibiotics<br \/>\n\tMedical devices<br \/>\n\tHospital consumables having substantial financial implications for patients<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Karnataka Government during the recent inspection on the Hospitals treating cancer where high cost drugs are used&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[190581,259929,130098,62330,248680,57082,259931,102,21374,259925,259932,259927,174029,62418,259926,6591,259930,28573,259928,65638,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-789092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-cancer-drugs","tag-cancer-drugs-pricing","tag-drug-enforcement","tag-drug-price-control","tag-drug-price-control-order","tag-drug-price-regulation","tag-food-safety-and-drug-administration-karnataka","tag-health","tag-health-ministry","tag-hospital-consumables","tag-hospital-consumables-cost","tag-hospital-medicine-billing","tag-karnataka-government","tag-maximum-retail-price","tag-medical-devices-regulation","tag-medication","tag-medicine-price-transparency","tag-national-pharmaceutical-pricing-authority","tag-pharmaceutical-discounts","tag-pharmaceutical-pricing","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}