Which Antibody Medicines Are Available in India?

More than a dozen monoclonal antibody cancer medicines are available in India. Rituximab, trastuzumab and bevacizumab have been here for well over a decade and now cost a fraction of what they once did. The newer blood cancer antibodies — daratumumab, obinutuzumab, brentuximab vedotin, polatuzumab vedotin and blinatumomab — arrived later, cost far more, and reach far fewer patients.

Medically reviewed by Dr. C. Raghavendra Reddy, Medical Oncologist, MBBS (Gold Medal) · DNB · DM (Medical Oncology, Gold Medal) · Last reviewed August 2026

Rituximab, trastuzumab, bevacizumab, cetuximab and nimotuzumab are long established in India, and several have Indian similar biologics. Daratumumab and obinutuzumab are marketed here. Brentuximab vedotin, polatuzumab vedotin and blinatumomab reach Indian patients through narrower routes. A few others could not be confirmed at review.

Availability is not one question but three, and they are usually tangled together. Whether a molecule holds an Indian approval, whether any company actively markets it here, and whether a particular hospital can source a vial for a particular patient are separate facts. A medicine can be approved and not marketed. It can be marketed and still take two weeks to arrive.

This page is the reference table for that cluster of questions. It sets out, in one view, what each antibody medicine targets, which cancers it is associated with, and what its Indian position looked like in August 2026. Where the position could not be established, the tables say so rather than guessing in either direction.

One point before the tables. A medicine appearing here does not mean it is suitable for you, and it does not mean CION or any other centre holds stock of it. This page describes medicines that exist in the Indian market. It does not offer them.

Table 1 — Blood cancer antibody medicines

Table 2 — Solid tumour antibody medicines families meet

Sources: CDSCO approval and subject expert committee records; published similar-biologic listings; the GST Council decision of September 2025 on life-saving drugs; manufacturer announcements and Indian trade and national reporting to August 2026. Cancer associations follow broadly published NCCN, ASCO and ESMO patient-education patterns and are not an India-specific indication list. CAR-T and other cell therapies are not antibody medicines and are not covered here; CION does not provide CAR-T or cell therapy.

Blood cancers account for most antibody medicine use in India: lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, multiple myeloma and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Among solid tumours, HER2-positive breast cancer, gastric, colorectal, head and neck, lung, kidney, cervical and ovarian cancers make up almost all of the rest.

The organ matters less here than the target. An antibody medicine only works if the protein it is built to grab is actually present on the cancer cell. Rituximab needs CD20. Daratumumab needs CD38. Trastuzumab needs HER2. Cetuximab and nimotuzumab need EGFR. A laboratory report, not a cancer name, decides eligibility.

This is the single most useful thing to understand about the class. Two people with the same diagnosis can receive different answers, because one tumour carries the target and the other does not. The test result is not a formality before treatment — it is the treatment decision.

Approval also carries a line and a stage inside it. Polatuzumab vedotin is used in combination, not alone. Obinutuzumab and rituximab both target CD20 but are not interchangeable across every indication. Two medicines against the same target can sit at completely different points in a treatment plan.

The honest summary is that a cancer appearing in the tables above means an antibody medicine is possible in that disease, in some patients, at some point. It does not mean it applies to a particular person. Most patients with these cancers in India will not be candidates for the newer antibody medicines.

Rituximab, trastuzumab and bevacizumab do, with several Indian manufacturers each. Nivolumab has had one since January 2026. Pertuzumab has one whose sale was restrained by a court order. The newer blood cancer antibodies — daratumumab, obinutuzumab, brentuximab vedotin, polatuzumab vedotin, blinatumomab — have none reported.

India calls these products similar biologics, not biosimilars and certainly not generics. These medicines are large proteins grown in living cells, which no manufacturer can copy exactly, so a similar biologic must prove through its own analytical and clinical studies that there is no clinically meaningful difference from the reference product before the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation will approve it.

The pattern is worth reading twice. Every antibody medicine with an Indian version is one that has been in use for well over a decade. Everything newer is originator-only. That is a patent timeline, not a clinical judgement, and it is the main reason two medicines in the same treatment plan can differ many times over in price.

Who this list is not for

This list is not for you if an antibody medicine has not been raised as an option for your specific cancer, stage and marker profile. These medicines are indicated in defined situations, and most patients with cancer in India are not candidates for any of them. A medicine that is not indicated for you does not become indicated because it appears on a reference table.

Each medicine also carries its own exclusions. An antibody only works where its target is present, so a HER2-negative breast cancer, a CD20-negative lymphoma or a CD30-negative T-cell lymphoma rules out the matching medicine outright. Trastuzumab and pertuzumab need cardiac monitoring and are approached with caution where heart function is already reduced. Antibody-drug conjugates add the toxicity of the chemotherapy they carry, commonly affecting nerves and blood counts. Bispecific T-cell engagers need the capacity to monitor and manage cytokine release syndrome and neurological effects, which not every centre has. Active infection, pregnancy and breastfeeding, poor performance status and severe organ impairment change the risk picture for most medicines on this page.

And this page is not a price quote, not a recommendation of any named brand or manufacturer over another, not a complete Indian label reference for every indication of every molecule, not a statement that CION stocks, supplies or dispenses any medicine named here, and not a guide to paediatric, off-label or clinical-trial use, none of which it covers. There is no route to any of these medicines outside a prescription, dispensed and infused under specialist supervision.

Yes. A monoclonal antibody is an immunotherapy. It is a laboratory-made copy of an immune protein, given to direct the immune system at a target on a cancer cell. The word immunotherapy in the news usually means only the newest checkpoint inhibitors, which is why older antibodies are rarely described that way.

That gap matters more than it sounds. A family told their relative is on chemotherapy plus rituximab, and separately reading that immunotherapy costs lakhs a cycle, will not realise they have been receiving an immunotherapy all along. The four families below all work through the immune system. What differs is how much of it each one recruits.

Side-effect patterns differ by family, not by price. Naked antibodies are most associated with infusion reactions. Antibody-drug conjugates add the toxicities of the chemotherapy they carry. Bispecific engagers can cause cytokine release syndrome and neurological effects, which is why the first cycles are monitored closely. Checkpoint inhibitors cause immune-related reactions that can affect any organ. None of these is a minor medicine.

Competition, not chemistry. Once several Indian manufacturers market a similar biologic of the same molecule, the price falls sharply. Where the originator is the only supplier, it does not. That is the whole explanation for the gap between rituximab and daratumumab on the same day in the same pharmacy.

Trastuzumab is the clearest published illustration. National reporting in April 2026, quoting the Third World Network, described a per-vial price of roughly ₹1.2 lakh before 2012, around ₹55,000 once the first Indian similar biologic arrived, and around ₹15,000 after a further entrant in 2024. One similar biologic produced a discount. Several produced a market. All of these figures are indicative only, as of August 2026.

Two policy changes are worth knowing about. The GST Council decided in September 2025 to move 33 life-saving medicines to nil GST from 22 September 2025, and that list named daratumumab and obinutuzumab among others. Separately, the first nivolumab similar biologic arrived in January 2026 at a reported quarter of the reference price. Neither change alters who is eligible for a treatment. They alter what it costs.

Every figure above is a published figure quoted from national reporting or a government notification, indicative only, as of August 2026. None of it is a CION price for any medicine named on this page. What a family actually pays depends on the dose calculated for body weight or surface area, the number of cycles planned, the hospital, and whether insurance or a state scheme covers that specific brand. A written estimate for your own treatment plan is something your treating team can prepare.

Ask where the vial came from and how it was stored. Antibody medicines are high-value cold-chain biologics, and falsified product has been reported in this category. In September 2023 the CDSCO issued an alert about a falsified batch of a lymphoma antibody circulating after a World Health Organization notification.

This is genuine patient-safety information rather than a reason for alarm. The risk concentrates where a medicine is expensive, in short supply, and sometimes sourced outside the treating hospital — which describes several medicines in Table 1 precisely. Asking the questions below is not a challenge to your care team.

• Source it through the treating hospital pharmacy wherever possible. A medicine sourced outside the hospital moves responsibility for storage and authenticity onto the family, usually without the means to verify either.
• Ask for the invoice, batch number and expiry. These should be recorded against the patient and should match the label on the vial that is actually infused.
• Ask how the cold chain was maintained. These proteins are stored refrigerated and are damaged by heat and by freezing. A vial carried across a city in a bag is a different product from one that never left a validated refrigerator.
• Treat an unusually low quote with caution. A price far below what licensed pharmacies charge for the same brand and vial size is the most commonly reported warning sign in this category.
• Ask which product is being used, by brand and molecule. With rituximab, trastuzumab and bevacizumab there are several legitimate Indian similar biologics, and you are entitled to know which one is being infused.

At CION, immunotherapy is administered as day care, and response assessment scans such as PET-CT are coordinated at partner imaging centres rather than performed in house. CION does not provide CAR-T or cell therapy.

This page is the index for the antibody cluster. Each blood cancer molecule in Table 1 has its own page, covering approved uses, the published cost picture and the side-effect profile in more detail than a reference table can hold.

• Daratumumab: Uses, Cost and Side Effects in Myeloma — the anti-CD38 antibody that changed myeloma treatment, and one of the two medicines on this page named in the September 2025 nil-GST list.
• Brentuximab Vedotin: Uses, Cost and Side Effects — the antibody-drug conjugate for CD30-positive lymphoma, and the one where the Indian supply route matters most.
• Blinatumomab: The Bispecific Antibody for Leukaemia — how a bispecific T-cell engager differs from every other medicine on this page, and why the first cycles need close inpatient monitoring.
• Immunotherapy Medicines Explained — the full medicines section this table indexes, including brand-versus-similar-biologic comparisons and how the cost information here is sourced.
• Checkpoint Inhibitors Approved in India — the companion reference for the fourth family in the table above.
• Which Immunotherapy Medicines Have Indian Biosimilars Today? — manufacturers and published launch prices in more depth.
• Immunotherapy at CION — the pillar section, including how immunotherapy is delivered as day care.

This page is an editorial reference for patient education. It does not claim that any named antibody medicine is superior to another, does not state that CION stocks, supplies or dispenses any medicine named here, and carries no CION price against any molecule. Pricing figures are published figures, indicative only, as of August 2026. Approval and marketing status reflects the position established at the time of review and should be confirmed with your treating oncologist, the hospital pharmacy, or the current CDSCO record before being relied on. Where a position could not be established, this page says so rather than asserting either way.