The waiver of the basic customs duty on 17 imported cancer medications will help patients who are forced to discontinue their treatment due to financial limitations, said doctors.
According to doctors and hospital officials, these drugs incur 8 to 12 per cent import duties, and the basic customs duty tax exemption would offer direct cost relief to patients who are dependent on imported therapies.
“To provide relief to patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, I propose to exempt basic customs duty on 17 drugs or medicines,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget 2026-27 in the Parliament on Sunday.
According to doctors, most of these cancer drugs are manufactured by large multinational pharmaceutical companies based in the US and Europe and include targeted therapies, immunotherapies and cell-based or gene-based treatments.
“These drugs are expensive in India because they have to be imported, as these are innovative drugs and we don’t have any alternative in our country. The technologies are patented,” said M.V. Chandrakanth, head of academics and senior medical oncologist at Narayana Health, Calcutta.
“The exemption of duties will definitely help patients. Cancer treatment means a long-term recurring expense. Out of those using these expensive drugs, 60 to 70 per cent of the patients drop out after four to six cycles of treatment,” said Chandrakanth.
“Basic customs duty is a problem because these drugs are often expensive, have no Indian alternative and are taken continuously for years. Even a small tax becomes a large, cumulative financial burden over time,” he said.
One of the drugs for which duties have been exempted is Ipilimumab, used for treating lung and kidney cancer, among others. According to doctors, one cycle of Ipilimumab costs ₹75,000, and must be taken once every three weeks for four cycles.
Another drug is Inotuzumab ozogamicin, an antibody-drug conjugate medication used to treat a type of leukaemia. Doctors said a single injection now costs ₹2-3 lakhs. A patient requires around 18 injections each year.
Talycabtagene autoleucel, a therapy used for types of lymphoma and leukaemia, costs up to ₹50 lakh.
“In India, around 15 lakh new cancer cases are reported every year. High drug cost is the major factor for treatment getting delayed, interrupted or discontinued,” said Gautam Mukhopadhyay, a surgical oncologist based in Calcutta.
The family members of one cancer patient in Calcutta, who will soon complete 16 cycles of chemotherapy, said they were looking forward to the reduction of costs on imported drugs, which would be used for the next stage of treatment for the patient.
“The doctor has said my wife will require expensive immunotherapy drugs. If the customs duty on the drug is exempted, then it will help us a lot,” said the husband of the patient.
Hospital officials said the Biopharma Shakti initiative could also reduce dependency on imported drugs and bring down the cost of treatment in the long run.
“The Biopharma Shakti initiative to make India a leading biopharma hub will reduce dependence on imported drugs, generate employment, and help lower healthcare costs,” said Sudarshan H. Ballal, chairman, Manipal Hospitals.
“The reduction in customs duty on select cancer drugs and treatments for rare diseases is a welcome step,” he said.