What did you pay for that cancer drug?
Search the molecule, the pack, or a 2019 brand name. Enter how many units were billed and what you paid. A scheduled drug is checked against its NPPA ceiling. A capped drug with no published price is checked against the MRP printed on your pack.
No exact match. These are the nearest spellings. Check the pack before you trust one.
Use the GST printed on your bill. NPPA fixes its prices before GST, so the check adds the GST you enter on top of the reference. If your pack prints a price with tax already in it, set GST to 0 and type that price.
How the rules work
137 cancer drugs under the 30% trade-margin cap
For these drugs the lawful maximum retail price is the March 2026 price to the stockist or distributor plus a margin of at most 30% of the MRP, which works out to 1.4286 times that price. So any lawful MRP implies a stockist price of about 70% of it. Current brand MRPs are not published yet. Search any of the 137 by name; brand names from the 8 March 2019 list also appear, marked as old prices.
Glossary
- Ceiling price: the maximum price a scheduled (NLEM) formulation may be sold at, fixed by NPPA. It already contains a 16% retailer margin.
- PTS / PTD: price to stockist or distributor, the first point of sale.
- MRP: the printed maximum retail price. NPPA fixes its ceiling and retail prices before GST, and drug bills normally add GST on top. Some packs print a price with tax already in it, so use the GST box to say which one you are holding.
- Trade margin: difference between the stockist price and the MRP, excluding GST.
- Jan Aushadhi: a government-run store selling generic medicines at its own published price, which is a shelf price and not a cap on anyone else.
- WFI: water for injection, the sterile water in the pack that a powder is dissolved in before it is given. It is a diluent, not extra drug.
- 10's: a pack of ten units. The price beside it is the price of that pack as the source prints it.
- IP: Indian Pharmacopoeia, the official standard the product is made to. IU and KU are potency units printed by the source, not weights. SR means sustained release.
- (p): a marker printed in the source list for some oral liquids. It is kept as printed because its meaning is not stated in the document.
Questions people ask
Is this legal advice?
No. It is arithmetic against published government prices. It does not decide whether anyone broke a rule, and it cannot represent you in a complaint.
Where do the prices come from?
Three official lists: NPPA's ceiling prices for 131 anti-cancer formulations, the October 2026 gazette notification that caps trade margins on 137 cancer drugs, and the Jan Aushadhi product list with its printed MRPs. Every row in the data file carries the source URL, the effective date, and a hash of the file it was read from.
The drug on my bill is not in the list. Why?
Only formulations with a published price can be checked. A cancer drug outside the 131 ceiling list and outside the 137 cap has no public reference price, so this tool will not invent one. Search the molecule rather than the brand: many bills print a trade name that no public list carries.
My bill is above the ceiling. What can I do?
Keep the bill and photograph the pack, including the printed MRP. Ask the hospital pharmacy for the pack price in writing. For a scheduled drug, a price above the ceiling plus GST is a contravention of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, and NPPA takes complaints through the form on nppa.gov.in. For a sale above the printed retail price, the Legal Metrology department of your state is the authority. This tool does not file anything for you.
Why does the GST box change the answer?
NPPA fixes ceiling prices before GST, and a hospital bill normally adds GST on top. The check adds the GST you type to the reference price, then compares. Some packs print a price that already includes tax: in that case set GST to 0 and type the printed price.
Is my bill or my name stored anywhere?
No. The page has no server, no account, and no analytics. Your numbers live in the address bar of your own browser, which is also why a link can carry a whole check.
Why is the Jan Aushadhi price so much lower?
It is a different product sold by a government-run store at its own published price. It is a useful comparison and a real option for many patients, but it is not a legal cap on a private hospital. The verdict says this in words, because a cheap alternative is not the same thing as a legal maximum.
What are the 2019 brand prices?
In March 2019 NPPA published revised MRPs for hundreds of brands while the trade-margin cap was being designed. Those figures are history, they are labelled as such, and they are not today's MRP. Use them to see how a brand was priced once, not to check a bill.
Does it work without a signal?
Yes. Install it from the browser menu, or use the install prompt when it appears, and the page and its price data stay on the phone. That matters in a hospital corridor with no network.
About Overlooted
Overlooted is an independent, non-commercial public interest reference tool. It puts the published government price of a cancer drug next to the amount on a patient's bill, so the gap is visible without an argument about it.
What this tool is
- A reference: NPPA ceiling prices, the 2026 trade-margin cap, and Jan Aushadhi shelf prices, searchable on a phone.
- Arithmetic: your quantity and amount, compared with the applicable published price.
- Free, and offline once installed.
What this tool is not
- Not a legal claim that any hospital or pharmacy has broken a rule.
- Not a regulator, a grievance forum, or a substitute for one.
- Not affiliated with NPPA, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, the Ministry of Health, or any hospital.
- Not a bill validator: it cannot check a bill it has never seen, and it does not verify what you actually paid.
- Not a complete price list: a drug without a published price stays unchecked, on purpose.
Data sources
| Source | What it fixes | Rows |
|---|---|---|
| NPPA, 131 anti-cancer formulations | ceiling price per unit, March 2026 | 131 |
| Gazette S.O. 5690(E), 17 October 2026 | 30% trade-margin cap on 137 drugs, effective 9 November 2026 | 137 molecules |
| NPPA revised MRP list, 8 March 2019 | brand MRPs, kept as history only | 433 brands |
| PMBJP product list | Jan Aushadhi shelf price | 76 oncology SKUs |
Method
- A ceiling price already contains a 16% retailer margin, so the price to the retailer is the ceiling divided by 1.16.
- The 2026 cap allows a trade margin of at most 30% of the MRP, which means MRP is 1.4286 times the price to the stockist, so any lawful MRP implies a stockist price of about 70% of it.
- Derived figures are labelled as derived. They are never presented as an invoice from a company, a distributor, or a hospital.
- No unit is converted across mg, mL, and vial. Two rows stay two rows.
Known limitations
- Current brand MRPs for the 137 capped drugs are not published, so those rows can only use the MRP you type from your pack.
- A manufacturer or distributor invoice price is not public. The 70% and 1.16 figures are ceilings on that price, not observations of it.
- Hospitals that buy directly from a manufacturer are treated as the stockist under the 2026 order, and their invoice is still not published.
- Where a source PDF wrapped a row across lines, that row was skipped rather than guessed.
- A bill at or below the printed MRP is lawful even when the same molecule is far cheaper at a Jan Aushadhi store.
Technical
One static page, no build step, no server, no accounts, no analytics. The check runs in the browser, the address bar carries the state, and a service worker keeps an installed copy working offline. The price data is a single JSON file that names its sources.
Corrections
If a price is wrong, the useful message quotes three things: the drug and strength on the pack, the price you were billed, and the government document you believe applies, with its date and number. A correction without the document cannot be checked against anything.
Overlooted is an independent tool, published at overlooted.org. Nothing here is an official publication.