'Rs 2,700 Cancer Drug Sold For Rs 27,000': Supreme Court Flags Overpricing Of Essential Cancer Medicine
Calling it a ‘broad daylight dacoity’, Supreme Court on Tuesday, flagged huge gap between the price at which medicines are sold by manufacturers to retailers and the maximum retail price (MRP) printed on them.
The situation had led retailers to sell essential medicine at an MRP of Rs 27,000 which they bought just for Rs 2,700. Calling the practice an ‘extortion’ of cancer patients, the court remarked, “If that is not extortion, what else it is? People sell their houses, people sell their ornaments for getting the medicines.”
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The court pointed out that the medicines were sold to retailers at a fraction of their printed MRP and questioned why manufacturers should be permitted to fix MRPs several times higher than the actual sale price.
Justice Sandeep Mehta stated that these are medicines, essential medicines for cancer, “That’s absolute rampage, carnage with the…absolute dacoity, broad daylight dacoity. How a patient can be cheated for a medicine, which the manufacturer sells to the retailer at 2700, The MRP is printed at 27,000? Ten times! It is very surprising that the authorities who are supposed to take the decision on this are absolutely silent. We need not spell out the reason for that” he observed.
The Court also noted that medicines were sold to retailers at a fraction of their printed MRP and questioned why manufacturers should be permitted to fix MRPs several times higher than the actual sale price.
