India, with a population of 1.2 billion, has a huge patient base suffering from life-threatening diseases. However, the country’s per capita income is considerably lower compared to developed and other emerging countries. Furthermore, most of the people in the country pay directly from their pockets as opposed to insurance proceeds in the developed markets and, therefore, the market remains quite price-sensitive. While the government does subside medical costs for the poor, the country still doesn't have deep pockets to afford drugs that can cost as high as $5,000 a month at times. So the government is considering ways to cap the prices of certain life-saving drugs in order to make them affordable to a greater number of patients. While unclear at this stage, there could be reference pricing or a fixed-pricing system.
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