Overview
- The shortage, which intensified in late May and was widely reported in early June, has left major hospitals in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala with only days of stock or none at all and has forced patients to hunt multiple pharmacies for vials.
- Doctors say treatment schedules for common cancers that rely on these platinum drugs are being disrupted, with some clinics delaying cycles, reducing doses or using less effective and costlier substitutes that may harm outcomes.
- Industry sources and oncologists attribute the shortfall to a sharp rise in global platinum prices and Gulf supply disruptions that pushed raw-material costs far above the price ceilings set by India’s Drug Price Control Order.
- Several manufacturers have scaled back or paused production and have formally asked regulators for a revision of NPPA price caps because current ceilings no longer cover rising input and sterile-manufacturing costs.
- Hospitals are using mitigation steps such as inventory tracking, prioritising curative cases, dose optimisation and inter-hospital sharing, but clinicians warn these measures create ethical rationing choices and call for urgent government action to restore stable supply.