Imported cancer drugs, medical equipment components become cheaper

Chennai:In order to bring down the ever-increasing healthcare spending, the customs duty on some of the costly life-saving medicines and medical equipment components has been brought down. The budget has withdrawn the 10 per cent customs duty on three widely used cancer drugs and reduced duty on x-ray tubes.

The Budget withdrew the 10 per cent basic customs duty on Trastuzumab Deruxtecan, Osimertinib, and Durvalumab. Deruxtecan is a breast cancer drug and can be used in all cancers with HER2 positive gene. In India, around 2 lakh women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.

Osimertinib and Durvalumab are used for lung cancer treatment. In India, Durvalumab is also used for biliary tract cancers. As per reports every year, more than 14 lakh new cases of cancer are reported in India. The mortality of cancers is also high in India at 9.19 lakh.

The basic customs duty on X-ray tubes and Flat panel detectors, including scintillators, which are used in the manufacture of medical, surgical, dental, or veterinary X-ray machines has been brought down from 15 per cent to 5 per cent till March 31, 2025, and it will be 7.5 per cent from April 1, 2025.

Despite the efforts by domestic manufacturers to cut the reliance on imported medical equipment, India's imports of medical devices have consistently been over Rs 60,000 crore for the last three years.

Further, all types of polyethylene used in the manufacture of orthopedic implants have been brought to nil. These items had different tax rates. Special-grade stainless steel, titanium alloys, cobalt-chrome alloys, and all types of polyethylene for use in the manufacture of other artificial parts of the body also are now free of customs duty.