Psoriasis is a lifetime condition treated in episodes, so the useful question is not the price of one prescription. It is the annual cost of keeping the disease quiet, including the monitoring nobody quotes for.
Psoriasis costs split into three streams that behave differently. Medication is a recurring pharmacy cost. Procedures, phototherapy, are per session across a defined course. And monitoring is a recurring laboratory cost that almost nobody includes when they compare quotes.
That last one matters most for systemic drugs. Methotrexate itself is inexpensive; the blood tests that make it safe are not free, and they recur for as long as you take it. A quote that names only the tablet price is incomplete rather than dishonest, but the effect on your planning is the same.
Biologics sit in their own category. They are dramatically more expensive than everything else here, biosimilars have narrowed the gap without closing it, and the conversation about affordability happens before the prescription is written rather than after.
Dr. (Lt Col) Khagendra Varada
Reg. No. 10461, Hyderabad State Medical Council
Full background →“Dr. Varada is an incredibly patient, knowledgeable and wonderful doctor. He sorted out an issue that I had been dealing with for years in one appointment and there’s been no looking back since!”
“Dr. Varada was excellent. Clearly knowledgeable and thorough, took time to explain what they saw and why. Office staff were friendly and the visit felt unrushed. Highly recommend for anyone wanting a dermatologist who really knows their craft.”
A consultation fee is fixed before anybody examines anything, so it is stated here. Everything below it depends on how much skin is involved and whether your joints are affected, which is why the rest of this page describes structure rather than prices.
₹1,299
History and photographs are taken on WhatsApp first, so the doctor has read your case before the call begins rather than during it.
₹1,499
The full examination, including the two instruments that cannot travel over video: the Wood’s lamp and the dermatoscope.
The consultation fee is published because it is fixed and the same for everyone. Treatment figures on this page are not, and that is deliberate: what a course costs depends on the diagnosis, so a number quoted before an examination would be an advertisement rather than information. Where an online consultation turns out to need an examination in person, only the difference of ₹200 is charged.
Figures are confirmed at consultation. The structure below is what lets you compare one clinic’s quote against another’s meaningfully.
| Item | Charged | What drives the total |
|---|---|---|
| Consultation | ₹1,299 online · ₹1,499 in person | Fixed; reviews charged the same way |
| Topical treatment | Monthly at the pharmacy | Body surface treated; which agents |
| Medicated shampoos | Monthly | Scalp involvement |
| NB-UVB phototherapy | Per session | 20–36 sessions per course |
| Methotrexate | Monthly: low | Drug cost is small |
| Blood monitoring | Per test round, recurring | The cost most often left out of a quote |
| Biologics | Per dose, ongoing | Which agent; biosimilar availability |
| Pre-biologic screening | One-off | TB and hepatitis screening |
The consultation fee is fixed and is stated above. Every other rupee figure is quoted after examination and deliberately not published here: the right treatment depends on how much skin is involved and whether your joints are affected, and so therefore does the cost.
These are not the clinic’s fees. They are the printed retail prices (MRP) of the drugs themselves on Indian pharmacy listings in September 2026, worked into a monthly figure at the usual maintenance dose for a 60 kg adult. Pharmacies routinely sell biosimilars well below MRP; the right-hand column is what people actually pay on a good day.
| Drug (class) | Sold in India as | Dose in maintenance | Monthly at MRP | Monthly at usual discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Methotrexate (conventional) | Many generics | 15 mg once a week | About ₹250 | About ₹200 |
| Apremilast (tablet) | Several generics | 30 mg twice a day | ₹1,500–2,200 | ₹1,500–2,100 |
| Ustekinumab (IL-12/23) | An Indian biosimilar | 45 mg every 12 weeks | About ₹17,000 | About ₹15,000 |
| Ixekizumab (IL-17A) | The originator, marketed in India | 80 mg every 4 weeks | About ₹25,000 | About ₹23,000 |
| Secukinumab (IL-17A) | The originator | 300 mg every 4 weeks | ₹37,000–46,000 | About ₹30,000–33,000 |
| Etanercept (anti-TNF) | Two Indian biosimilars | 50 mg once a week | ₹31,000–46,000 | ₹18,000–20,000 |
| Adalimumab (anti-TNF) | A dozen Indian biosimilars | 40 mg every 2 weeks | ₹30,000–61,000 | ₹17,000–21,000 |
| Infliximab (anti-TNF) | Indian biosimilars | 5 mg/kg every 8 weeks, by infusion | About ₹45,000 | About ₹17,000 plus the infusion |
| Guselkumab, risankizumab, bimekizumab, deucravacitinib | Import only | Various | ₹55,000 and upward | Named-patient import; no discount |
Drug prices only. Add pre-treatment screening, blood monitoring, the consultation reviews, and for infliximab the day-care infusion. A 2025 IJDVL analysis using Indian MRPs found the ustekinumab biosimilar the cheapest per year and ixekizumab the cheapest per patient who reached complete clearance; etanercept was the most expensive on both counts. Prices move; ask for the current figure before deciding.
The drug with the lowest sticker price is not always the cheapest treatment, because the cost that matters is the cost of a year of quiet skin. A biologic that needs a dose every fortnight and is stopped and restarted is dearer over a year than one given every twelve weeks that holds. That is why the published Indian comparisons rank by cost per patient who responds, not by price per vial, and why the ranking changes with the dosing interval.
Two practical facts shape the conversation here. Most health insurance in India covers biologics only when given during a hospital admission, not as outpatient injections, so the monthly figure is usually paid out of pocket; check your own policy before assuming either way. And pharmacy discounts on biosimilars are large and variable, so the same prescription can differ by a third between two chemists.
A patient flaring four times a year pays for four courses of rescue treatment, four rounds of appointments and four periods of not working properly. A maintenance plan that reduces that to one flare a year is cheaper even if the monthly cost looks higher.
That is the calculation worth doing, and it is rarely the one presented. It is also why the plan here is written as a year, not as a prescription.
Get a costed planHow many per year, and what each one costs you in treatment and in days. That number is the real baseline.
Almost always, and it is also less disruptive, which is the part no invoice shows.
At September 2026 retail prices, roughly ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month for the ustekinumab biosimilar or ixekizumab, ₹17,000 to ₹33,000 a month for adalimumab, etanercept or secukinumab after the usual pharmacy discount, and ₹55,000 upward for imported newer agents. Apremilast tablets are about ₹2,000 a month and methotrexate about ₹200. Screening, monitoring and reviews are extra, and most insurance covers biologics only in hospital.
Because the right treatment, and therefore the cost, depends on how much skin is involved, whether your joints are affected, and what has already been tried. Costs are quoted in writing after examination, including after a video consultation.
Biologics, by a wide margin. Biosimilars have reduced the gap. Everything else (topicals, phototherapy, conventional systemics), sits in a much lower range.
Methotrexate is usually cheaper in drug cost, but requires recurring blood monitoring. Phototherapy has no monitoring cost but requires 20–36 clinic visits, which carries its own travel and time cost. Compare the total, not the headline.
Usually not for routine outpatient care. Cover is more likely where admission is needed or where psoriatic arthritis is being treated. Read your policy wording.
Often yes, by using generics and biosimilars where clinically equivalent, by completing a phototherapy course properly so it delivers a real remission, and by having monitoring bloods done locally rather than at a hospital laboratory.
The clinical statements on this page follow the guidance and evidence below. They are independent sources. None of them is connected to this clinic, and none of them sells the treatments described here.
Not a treatment plan sold on the spot. Message the clinic and bring your history.