The Crisis of Chemotherapy: Shortage of Cisplatin and Carboplatin in India

India’s oncology scene is seriously under strain. It’s all about the persistent shortage of the backbone chemotherapy agents—cisplatin and carboplatin. This is messing up treatment schedules for cancer patients. Doctors are forced to compromise. They have to use therapies that work less well, or cost a lot more.

These drugs. Cisplatin and carboplatin . They are the platinum-based drugs. They are the standard. First line treatment for so many cancers. Head and neck, lung, ovarian, GI cancers. They are the backbone of many curative protocols. Hardly any direct substitutes exist.

Dr MV Chandrakanth , a medical oncologist at Narayana Health in Kolkata, put it plainly. “This isn’t just a simple shortage of cisplatin or carboplatin. It reflects bigger problems. Manufacturing economics. Raw material costs. The entire oncology supply chain.” He said the immediate priority is making sure patients get timely, effective treatment.

The clinical fallout is already visible. Across major cancer centers. Treatment is getting delayed. Doses are being cut. Chemotherapy schedules are broken. Inventory is stressed. Doctors are starting to substitute. They are swapping platinum agents for other regimens. It’s a compromise. Inferior results. Much higher costs for everyone involved.

Dr Raajit Chanana , director at Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital in New Delhi, called it a recurring structural mess. “The shortage has been a constant problem. Now it’s worse. We get emails from procurement saying cisplatin and carboplatin are gone globally. We are trained to handle things. We’ve started switching drugs. But these alternatives? They don't perform as well. They cost more.”

Another oncologist from Sir Gangaram Hospital chimed in. He was caught. Between what the patients needed and what the hospitals had. Procurement teams are scrambling for stocks. The ethical tightrope walk is constant. Who gets priority? How do you ethically ration something that saves lives?

Mitigation strategies kicked in fast at the leading centers. They started tracking inventory tighter. Collaboration between hospitals. Prioritizing curative cases. Dose optimization protocols.

Doctors started shouting this out. Social media. X. Dr Vandana Mahajan , a cancer care expert and palliative counsellor, posted something. “Cisplatin and carboplatin are vital. They are essential for treating thousands in India.”

Dr Shyam Aggarwal , an oncologist and bone marrow transplant expert at Sir Gangaram Hospital, went straight to the top. He posted on X, urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He wanted continuous production of these two drugs.

“Cancer patients are struggling for two critical, life-saving drugs— Cisplatin and Carboplatin . The Government needs to ensure these cheap drugs are made. Common sense needs to win in the pharma industry,” he wrote.

He also pushed Health Minister JP NNadda . He asked him to look into it. “These medicines form the base treatment for so many common cancers—oral, ovary, lung, cervix, breast, testis, gall bladder, and tons of others. Please ensure a regular supply of these life-saving drugs,” his post insisted.

The shortage itself intensified since late 2025. It’s not just one failure. It’s a mess of manufacturing issues, pricing traps, and broken supply chains all hitting at once.

The global platinum market is wild. Prices shot up. Mining disruptions, geopolitical drama, and massive demand from the AI and semiconductor sectors are pushing platinum prices up. Meanwhile, domestic price controls set by the NPPA just freeze reimbursement levels way below the actual production costs. This leaves manufacturers with no viable margin.

Pfizer, one of the big Indian makers of these formulations, didn't even comment when asked about the shortage.

An industry veteran, speaking anonymously, hit the nail on the head. “The core issue is that price controls have totally lost touch with manufacturing reality.”

He explained the vicious cycle. When the government caps the price of cisplatin or carboplatin, and global platinum raw material costs jump forty to sixty percent, manufacturers face a choice. Produce at a loss, or stop production. Sterile chemotherapy manufacturing is expensive. It demands strict quality control. It carries regulatory baggage. If the profit margin drops from, say, Rs 200 to Rs 50, or even negative, you just don't scale up. You slow down. You pause it.

It wasn't a shortage of supply born from scarcity. It was a rational business reaction.

Dr Wajahat Ahmed , a radiation oncologist working for Jammu and Kashmir, echoed this. He called it “a silent clinical crisis.”

He posted on X about the vanishing drugs. “Cisplatin and Carboplatin are disappearing from the pharmacies. For thousands of patients, a delay in chemotherapy isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a death sentence.”

He hammered home the “massive global platinum paradox.” The cost of raw platinum jumped from about ₹3.8k to nearly ₹8k per gram because of instability and tech demand. Yet, the domestic price caps stay stuck. Pharma companies shut down production because making these drugs is just a financial drain. The result? Heartbreaking. Doctors are forced to ration what’s left. Families are being pushed into the black market. They pay insane out-of-pocket prices just to keep their loved ones alive. Government action through the NPPA to urgently revise those prices is desperately needed.