Government to notify cardiac stent pricing in 15 days

Prices of both metallic and drug-eluting likely to be brought down once notification is announced

Union Pharmaceutical Minister Ananth Kumar on Saturday said the centre would issue a notification to control the prices of cardiac stents, an artificial tube inserted in the human heart for proper blood circulation.

Prices of both metallic stents and drug-eluting stents, ones which put drug inside the coronary arteries, are expected to be brought down once the Department of Pharmaceuticals announces the notification “within next 15 days”.

“Since cardiac are schedule 1 medicine under National List of Essential Medicine, under Drug Price Control Order we have issued a notification of price fixation for stents. Within next 15 days the notification will come before the country and all the cardiac stents prices will be reduced in a great way and they will be controlled,” said Kumar at an event to announce an international conference on medical device sector in Bengaluru.

He pointed out that people are often “exploited by private hospitals” on the prices of stents. While the manufacturing cost for stents is around 10,000, people end up paying between 1 to 1.5 lakh for a stent.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals had proposed the inclusion of stents within NLEM middle of last year and it was based on recommendations made by a sub-committee of expert cardiologists.

While the use of cardiac stents has reportedly gone up by three times during the past five years, India currently imports one out of every two stents used.

Kumar also said prices of 1,150 life-saving medicines under NLEM have been reduced between 60% and 93%. “We have also come out with an app called Pharma Sahi Dam to help people know the right price/controlled price of a particular medicine. And one can raise complaints using another app called Pharma Jan Samadhan if any hospital or pharmacy do not accept the controlled price.”

Meanwhile, he said that State governments of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh have shown interest and are in talks to open pharma and medical device parks. “The Andhra Pradesh government proposed to give 300 acres land at throw-away prices. The Government of India along with industries will put around Rs 200 crore initially for the part in Andhra Pradesh.”