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NPPA asks cos to revise prices of 17 drugs following BCD exemption
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Gireesh Babu, New Delhi
February 12 , 2026
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The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked the manufacturers and marketers of the 17 life-saving drugs, which have been exempted from customs duty in the Union Budget 2026-27, to revise the maximum retail price (MRP) accordingly and inform the Authority.
The move is in line with the Ministry of Finance's notification extending the exemption of basic customs duty (BCD) on 17 more drugs and medicines for cancer patients. With this, the total number of drugs exempted from BCD is 129.
On February 1, 2026, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget Speech, said, "To provide relief to patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, I propose to exempt basic customs duty on 17 drugs or medicines."
The list of drugs include ribociclib, abemaciclib, talycabtagene autoleucel, tremelimumab, venetoclax, ceritinib, brigatinib, darolutamide, toripalimab, serplulimab, tislelizumab, inotuzumab ozogamicin, ponatinib, ibrutinib, dabrafenib, trametinib, and ipilimumab.
As per the Drugs Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013, MRP of drugs or formulations is inclusive of taxes and duties, as applicable, and any downward change in duties and taxes should be reflected in the MRP and benefit of Nil duty, reduction in duties, or taxes should be passed on to consumers.
"...all the manufacturers and marketing companies selling drugs/formulations mentioned in the above referred notification are required to revise the MRP of drugs/formulations on account of exemption of Custom Duty," said the drug price regulator in a latest communication to all manufacturers and marketing companies for compliance.
"Information about the revision is required to be submitted through Form V and the manufacturers shall issue a price list or supplementary price list to the dealers, State Drugs Controllers and the government indicating changes," it added.
Ribociclib and abemaciclib, are CDK4/6 inhibitors to treat breast cancer, marketed by Novartis and Eli Lilly, respectively. Talycabtagene autoleucel is a CAR-T cell therapy for relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, indigenously developed by Immunoadoptive Cell Therapy Private Limited (ImmunoACT), a spin-off from the biosciences & bioengineering department at IIT Bombay.
Tremelimumab is a human monoclonal antibody and immune checkpoint inhibitor for the treatment of cancer, marketed by AstraZeneca; Venetoclax is an oral targeted therapy to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, small lymphocytic lymphoma, and early stage acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), marketed by AbbVie.
Ceritinib and brigatinib are drugs to treat non-small cell lung cancer, marketed by Novartis and Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Darolutamide, is an oral antiandrogen drug to treat prostate cancer, from Bayer; Toripalimab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma and melanoma, marketed by Dr Reddy's Laboratories; Serplulimab, is a monoclonal antibody to treat cancers including small cell lung cancer, developed by Shanghai Henlius Biotech and marketed in India by Intas Pharmaceuticals; and tislelizumab is a checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy used for cancers such as esophageal and stomach cancer, from Swiss pharma firm BeiGene and marketed in India by Glenmark Pharma.
Inotuzumab ozogamicin, is an antibody-drug conjugate to treat acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, marketed by Pfizer; Ponatinib, is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor to treat leukaemia from Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Ibrutinib, is an oral kinase inhibitor to treat chronic and small lymphocytic lymphoma from AbbVie; Dabrafenib is a drug to treat specific cancers with mutated gene, and Trametinib, is an oral kinase inhibitor to treat certain mutated cancers including advanced melanoma, lung cancer, among others, both from Novartis; and Ipilimumab, is a monoclonal antibody immunotherapy to treat advanced cancers such as melanoma from Bristol Myers Squibb. Generic versions of some of these drugs are also available in the country.
While exemption of these drugs from BCD was hailed by the industry and experts as a move to reduce the burden of cancer patients in the country, patient advocacy group Working Group (WG) on Access to Medicines and Treatments has alleged that the exemption of basic customs duty would not be sufficient to reduce the burden of patented life-saving medicines on the patients, as against the legally available tools such as compulsory licensing and action against evergreening of patents.
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