Rs 8,447 crore in drug overcharging dues remain unpaid, data shows

Drug-price overcharging claims worth Rs 8,447 crore remain unpaid -- 84% of the total demanded from pharma companies since 2009-10. The data emerged as the Centre told the Supreme Court it will cap trade margins on anti-cancer drugs.

Outstanding overcharging claims against pharmaceutical companies have piled up to Rs 8,447 crore since 2009-10 -- about 84 per cent of the cumulative demand raised by the drug-price regulator, which has managed to realise only Rs 1,582.4 crore of the Rs 10,029.8 crore demanded. The figures, analysed from National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority data, underline how little of the money allegedly overcharged from patients has actually been recovered.

Of the unpaid amount, Rs 5,872.6 crore is locked in litigation, Rs 2,369.3 crore is under process and Rs 200 crore has been referred to collectors for recovery. The scale matters because medicines form a large share of hospitalisation costs: the National Statistics Office found medicine expenditure averaged Rs 6,368 per hospitalisation in rural areas and Rs 6,948 in urban areas.

The data surfaced as the Centre informed the Supreme Court on October 12 that it would cap trade margins at 30 per cent for non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines; a bench questioned why similar curbs could not extend to other drugs and asked the government to work out broader price-regulation measures, with the matter to be heard again on October 27.