India, Feb. 2 -- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced a full customs exemption for 36 lifesaving medicines to treat cancer, and other rare and chronic diseases, and approved a concessional customs duty of 5% for six other drugs -- moves that experts hailed as steps that will increasing accessibility to expensive advanced medicines for a larger section of patients.

The drugs include Tepotinib (to treat non-small cell lung cancer), Avelumab (a monoclonal antibody to treat certain types of cancer), Asciminib (to treat a type of white blood cell cancer), Alglucosidase Alfa (to treat pompe disease), and Mepolizumab (to treat severe asthma).

"To provide relief to patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, rare di...