Chennai: PMK founder S Ramadoss on Sunday appealed to the Center to ensure affordable cancer medicines amid prevailing shortage and rising prices.
“The acute shortage of cisplatin and carboplatin, two vital chemotherapy drugs widely used in cancer treatment across the country, is of grave concern. The central government’s decision to allow pharmaceutical companies to raise prices to alleviate this shortage clearly indicates official recognition of the crisis,” he said in a statement.
While acknowledging that fair pricing for manufacturers is essential to improve the quality of medicines and boost production, Ramadoss stressed that the government must simultaneously protect the livelihoods of poor and middle-class patients undergoing cancer treatment.
“Every year, thousands of people in India are diagnosed with cancer, the vast majority of whom depend on government hospitals for treatment,” he noted, claiming that “countless families are trapped in debt due to medical expenses and under these circumstances, any hike in the prices of chemotherapy drugs threatens to impose an unbearable financial burden on patients and their families.”
The PMK leader asked the Center to implement several measures, including providing cisplatin, carboplatin and all other essential chemotherapy drugs at highly subsidized prices to both central and state government hospitals in required quantities, and formulating a special scheme to provide these life-saving drugs absolutely free to poor and economically deprived patients.
“In addition, the government must ensure that the full cost of these medicines is covered under public health insurance schemes, including Prime Minister Ayushman Bharat’s universal health insurance schemes.”
He said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority should strengthen price control and distribution mechanisms to ensure that patients are not exploited due to high prices. He added: “There must be a guarantee of the uninterrupted availability of these medicines in all cancer treatment centers, up to the level of government hospitals in the region.”
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