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The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare presented its 176th Report on 7 August 2026, titled Affordability and Accessibility of Healthcare Facilities in Public and Private Sector.
The report, chaired by Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav, carries 368 recommendations and was presented to the Rajya Sabha and laid on the table of the Lok Sabha the same day.
Its headline recommendation is that the gap between the landing price of a medicine or medical device and its Maximum Retail Price should not exceed 20 per cent.
It cited the clot-buster Tenecteplase, with a landing cost of about Rs 18,000 against an MRP of Rs 50,000, and sought standardisation of clear aligner prices ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
It pointed to the 2017 coronary stent price cap, which brought prices down to about Rs 25,000-30,000 and generated estimated annual consumer savings of Rs 13,353 crore.
The landing price is the entry cost at which a medicine or device reaches the Indian market - the imported or ex-factory cost with duties and freight added. The Maximum Retail Price is the highest price that may be charged to a consumer, printed on the pack. Everything between the two is distribution margin, hospital mark-up and trade discount. The committee's finding is that when this spread is very wide it does not lower what the patient pays; it simply expands the room for mark-ups inside the supply chain, and shows up as higher out-of-pocket expenditure. Capping the spread at 20 per cent is a way of regulating the margin rather than fixing the product price itself.
Simple Analogy: A shop is free to price a shirt, but if the tag always reads three times what the shop paid, the customer is paying for the shelf, not the shirt.
Examines the demands for grants, bills and policy of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and reports to Parliament; it produced the 176th Report
Fixes and revises ceiling prices of scheduled formulations and monitors prices of non-scheduled drugs; it administered the coronary stent price cap
The operative price control order, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. It sets ceiling prices for scheduled formulations - those listed in the National List of Essential Medicines - and caps annual price increases for the rest.
The parent statute under which drug price control orders are issued, drugs being a scheduled essential commodity.
Determines which formulations fall under ceiling price control; bringing a medicine or device into the list is the usual route to capping its price.
GS Paper II > Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector - Health; Parliament and its committees
General Awareness > Current affairs and Indian Polity - Parliamentary committees
General Awareness > Current affairs and regulators
General Awareness > Current affairs
The entry cost at which a medicine or medical device reaches the market, before distribution margins and retail mark-ups are added.
Health spending borne directly by households at the point of care rather than met by government or insurance; wide price gaps push it upward.
The international standard for quality management systems specific to the medical devices sector.
A medicine listed in the National List of Essential Medicines, for which the NPPA fixes a ceiling price under the DPCO, 2013.