New Delhi, Oct. 27 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the Centre over the massive disparity between the maximum retail price (MRP) of medicines and their price to retailers, asking why the system appeared to favour pharmaceutical manufacturers over patients.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta criticised the government's reluctance to regulate medicine prices more extensively, observing that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) appeared "totally defunct".

"Why is the entire system working to help these people (manufacturers)?" the bench asked, while hearing two petitions concerning medicine pricing.

When Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, submitted that India had...