New Delhi, Oct. 18 -- The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the regulator that sets and monitors drug prices, has capped the trade margin on 137 non-scheduled anti-cancer medicines at 30% of their maximum retail price (MRP), a move the government expects to cut their prices by up to 70%. The revised prices will apply from November 9. The trade margin is the share of a drug's price kept by the distributors, chemists and hospitals that sell it. Non-scheduled medicines are those outside the National List of Essential Medicines, which means the government sets no ceiling price for them. The decision was approved at NPPA meetings on October 16 and 17, according to the minutes, seen by HT. At the meeting, chaired by Manoj Joshi, secretary of department of pharmaceuticals and chairman, NPPA, the authority invoked Paragraph 19 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO), 2013. This provision lets the government fix the price of any drug in extraordinary circumstances, in public interest. The minutes say the authority considered "the need to address excessive trade mark-ups in non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs" and concluded that "extraordinary circumstances warrant intervention under Paragraph 19 of DPCO, 2013 in public interest". The 30% cap is calculated on the MRP excluding goods and services tax (GST). According to the minutes, this is equivalent to a mark-up of 42.86% on the price to stockist or distributor (PTS/PTD), the price at which the manufacturer sells the drug to the first link in the supply chain. A medicine sold to a distributor at Rs.100, for instance, can carry an MRP of no more than about Rs.143 before GST, since the Rs.43 difference is 30% of Rs.143. "The Authority considered it necessary to cap the trade margin at 30% of MRP, excluding GST, corresponding to a mark-up of 42.86% on the Price to Stockist/Price to Distributor (PTS/PTD), to retain a reasonable trade margin while preventing excessive mark-ups," the minutes read....