India is facing a critical shortage of two key chemotherapy drugs, cisplatin and carboplatin, primarily due to a steep increase in platinum prices.
Doctors and hospitals have raised an alarm over the unavailability of these drugs, but manufacturers find it financially unsustainable to keep making the drugs, which are strictly price controlled. Doctors caution that if the shortage continues, it could cause major treatment delays for one in five cancer patients.
Rising platinum prices started to strain manufacturers in June 2025, and the West Asia war has exacerbated the crisis, with some drugmakers completely halting production this month.
Mint explains the delicate situation, its impact, and potential solutions.
What’s happening?
Cisplatin and carboplatin are among the most common chemotherapy drugs, integral to the treatment of head and neck cancers, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, testicular cancer, and several other malignancies.
Doctors started to note the shortage—first of Carboplatin, which is typically prescribed first, and then cisplatin—two months ago, and the situation has worsened ever since. The impact is now being felt on the ground, forcing doctors and cancer centers to ration and modify their doses to make existing supplies last longer.
Why is this happening?
The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for these drugs is largely derived from platinum. Prices of the precious metal have surged from ₹2,000 to above ₹5,000 per gram since June 2025, which industry executives have termed unprecedented in the past 15-17 years.
“The raw material for these drugs is largely imported. The government of India requires a special permit for import, which currently takes 3-4 months,” said Mohan Jain, director at Naprod Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., which derives 15% of its revenue from these drugs.
Because these drugs are price-controlled by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), their retail price often barely covers the surging cost of raw materials, making production financially unviable for manufacturers. Cisplatin costs about ₹250 to ₹400 per 50 gm while carboplatin costs about ₹1,000 per vial.
This crisis has been severely worsened by a sharp increase in the import duty on platinum from 6.4% to 15.4%, alongside the strengthening of the US dollar against the rupee.
How is this affecting patients?
The drugs are the standard in the treatment of head, neck and cervical cancers, and a key component of curative-intent treatment for germ-cell tumours. Curative-intent is a treatment approach focused on completely eradicating cancer cells.
“While alternatives exist in some situations, the evidence is limited. Patients may also incur higher costs when alternative regimens are required,” said Dr Vijay Patil, consultant of medical oncology at PD Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre in Mumbai.
“If the shortage continues, it could cause a major treatment delay in one out of five patients,” said Dr Kshitij Joshi, co-founder and director of MOC cancer care, a chain of daycare cancer centres.
Roughly 20-40% of chemotherapy daycare patients need platinum-based drugs, he said, though in some cases, treatment regimens can be modified to use alternative drugs. For patients undergoing curative-intent treatment, a delay of more than four weeks can increase the risk of mortality by 6% to 10%, he said.
How is it affecting manufacturers?
Manufacturers are struggling to absorb these rising expenses, finding it financially unviable to sell the drugs when raw material costs almost equal the maximum retail price. Smaller pharmaceutical companies, such as Naprod, have already halted production entirely due to a shortage of APIs.
“The shortage is likely to continue until platinum prices stabilize, import permits are processed faster, and domestic pricing allows sustainable production,” said Jain of Naprod.
How is the shortage being addressed?
Manufacturers are reportedly in talks with the NPPA to revise the prices, and are also engaging with the government to streamline the process of granting import permits and seek adjustments to import duties.
Measures such as building buffer stocks and diversifying API suppliers and manufacturing sources may help avoid such a situation in the future, experts said. They also recommended other measures such as a national early-warning system for essential cancer drug shortages, and better coordination between regulators and manufacturers.