17 cancer drugs cheaper after customs duty exemption: These have survival benefits, says AIIMS doctor

During the interim budget as well, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had reduced the customs duty on three advanced anti-cancer therapies.

2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 2, 2026 12:06 PM IST

Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman poses with her team for a photo op before leaving to present the Budget in New Delhi on Sunday. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the exemption of 17 cancer drugs from basic customs duty in her budget speech on Sunday. These include immunotherapies such as Ribociclib, Ceritinib, and Trametinib, among others. This is in line with the Government’s push towards bringing down the prices of newer cancer therapies.

Last year, Sitharaman said that 37 medicines and 13 patient assistance programmes would be exempt from customs duty. And, during the interim budget as well, the Union finance minister had reduced the customs duty on three advanced anti-cancer therapies.

Dr Abhishek Shankar, an oncologist from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said, “These drugs are important for the treatment of breast cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma, and leukaemia. These are newer therapies that are known to have a survival benefit. Any reduction in cost is likely to increase the acceptability of these drugs and reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure for the patients.”

Sitharaman also proposed adding seven more rare diseases to the list for exempting import duties for personal imports of medicines and special foods needed by patients with these conditions, including familial homozygous hypercholesterolemia (which leads to very high cholesterol levels) and primary immune deficiency disorders.

Anonna Dutt

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More