What you actually pay for in a ₹148 strip
6 min read · updated 23 September 2026
Take a real example: a strip of ten tablets with a printed maximum retail price of ₹148.50. That is ₹14.85 a tablet. Here is roughly where it goes.
The tablet itself
The active ingredients, the binders, the coating, the foil, the printing and the labour to make it come to a small fraction of the price. For a common, long-off-patent molecule made at scale, this is usually a rupee or two per tablet, sometimes less.
That is the part you think you are buying. It is not where the money goes.
The retailer
Your chemist typically works on a margin in the region of 20% of the printed price. This is not a scandal. It pays for the shop, the refrigeration, the licensed pharmacist behind the counter, the stock that expires unsold, and the fact that someone is open when you need them at nine at night.
The distributor
Between the manufacturer and your chemist sits at least one stockist, taking roughly another 10%. They carry inventory across a region and absorb the risk of it not selling.
The sales force
A branded manufacturer's representatives visit doctors to make the brand the one that gets written on the prescription. This is a large permanent cost, and it is the single clearest difference between a branded medicine and a Jan Aushadhi one.
Advertising and profit
What remains covers brand building and the return that a listed company owes its shareholders.
What a Jan Aushadhi product does not carry
Almost all of the middle. The government buys centrally, in bulk, for the whole country. There is no representative visiting your doctor, because the scheme does not compete for prescriptions that way. There is no advertising budget. The Kendra's margin exists but is applied to a far lower base price.
Strip those layers out and ₹14.85 a tablet becomes ₹1.57.
The honest caveats
Two things this argument does not say.
It does not say the retail and distribution margins are unearned. They pay for a service you use.
And it does not say every branded medicine is overpriced by this much. Newer drugs still under patent genuinely cost more to bring to market, and the gap on those is smaller or absent. The 80-90% gaps show up on old, well-established molecules, which is also most of what people take every day for blood pressure, diabetes, acidity and pain.
Common questions
- What am I paying for in a branded medicine?
- The cost of making a tablet is a small part of its retail price. The rest is the medical sales force that visits doctors, the stockist and retailer margins, advertising, and the manufacturer's profit - all recovered from the price of every strip.
- Does a higher price mean a better medicine?
- No. Price in the Indian medicine market reflects distribution and marketing costs far more than it reflects quality. Two products at very different prices can carry identical compositions and be made to the same WHO-GMP standard.
This is general information about medicine pricing, not medical advice. Never stop, start or switch a prescribed medicine without asking your doctor or pharmacist.