NPPA revises prices for 543 anticancer brands

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has published revised maximum retail prices for 543 anticancer medicine brands, with the new prices scheduled to take effect on November 9, 2026. The list is based on information pharmaceutical companies submitted through October 27 and will be updated as manufacturers provide further prices for nonscheduled anticancer drugs, the Department of Pharmaceuticals said. The 543 brands are not the same category as the 137 nonscheduled drugs covered by the underlying trade-margin order. The revision follows the NPPA’s October 17 order imposing a 30% cap on trade margins for those 137 drugs. The order uses the Drugs Prices Control Order, 2013, to set a limit on the gap between the distributor price and the maximum retail price. It applies to listed drugs across strengths, dosage forms and combinations, including when a drug is also used for conditions other than cancer. The published prices vary by brand and pack size, and the revision does not mean every medicine became cheaper. An analysis of the filings found that 397 of the 543 entries had lower prices, while 146 were unchanged. It also found that some generic and biosimilar versions...