The Indian government has moved to reduce the price of cancer drugs after a retired bank clerk took her case to the supreme court.

From next month, 137 cancer drugs in India will be cheaper as the government tries to tackle the tragedy of poorer patients either forgoing treatment, selling land or falling into debt to meet the high cost of some medicines, which are making large profits for hospitals and pharmacists.

Sarojam Radhakrishnan, a former bank employee in Kerala, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. Doctors prescribed life-saving targeted treatments but the monthly cost, of more than 63,000 rupees (£500), was far beyond her family’s means.

Realising that thousands of families were being ruined by the cost of such drugs, Radhakrishnan filed a petition to the Kerala high court in 2022 demanding government intervention to lower the costs.

When the case reached the supreme court, the judges looked at hospitals’ and retailers’ mark-ups on cancer drugs and called the situation “carnage” and…