The Supreme Court has sharply criticised the huge gap between the procurement price and the price charged for medicines in corporate hospitals, calling them industries rather than charitable services.

During a recent hearing, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta cited a cancer medicine with a purchase price of around 2,700 rupees that patients were billed 27,000 rupees for. Justice Mehta asked why there was a ten-fold markup, saying the loser in this system is the honest taxpayer, according to Medical Dialogues.

The bench said corporate hospitals should be treated as industries, not charitable service providers. It suggested bringing hospital pharmacies under the uniform 16 per cent margin prescribed by the Drug Price Control Order, as reported by Nation Path India.

The court also flagged cases where hospitals require patients to buy medicines only from their in-house pharmacies, limiting patients’ choice.

The bench asked the Centre to examine the issue and come back with a proposal. The solicitor general sought two weeks’ time for consultations, and the matter will be heard again on October 12, 2026.