New Delhi, Sept. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre whether a uniform cap should be imposed on the retail prices of medicines and medical devices to prevent excessive markups over the price charged to retailers.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta questioned why the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) could not be restricted to 16 per cent above the Price To Retailer (PTR), particularly in cases involving life-saving medicines.

Justice Mehta pointed to a cancer drug priced at about Rs 27,000 for consumers despite its PTR being around Rs 3,000, observing that the disparity warranted scrutiny.

The bench also questioned the rationale for excluding non-scheduled medicines from the price-control regime under the Drugs ...