Meet on stent price cap

Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar will chair a meeting to work out a plan to implement the capping of stent prices. As the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)’s notification doesn’t distinguish between government owned hospitals and private hospitals, stents have to be sold at the fixed prices. A senior official from the state told Business Standard, “The chief secretary has convened a meeting to ensure availability of stents. He will also review the state’s preparedness to deal with the situation.”  In a recent communication to the NPPA, chief secretary has mentioned that there was no shortage of quality stents in the state. Other state drug regulators have also been asked to monitor the prices and the availability of stents.  

A senior official from the state told Business Standard, “The chief secretary has convened a meeting on the how to ensure availability of stents. He will also review the state’s preparedness to deal with the situation.” 

Meanwhile, other state drug regulators have also been asked to monitor the prices and the availability of stents. On the 13th of February, NPPA had notified the prices of stents capping them at Rs 29,600 for drug eluting stents and Rs 7,260 for bare metal stents. The centre also invoked section 3(i) of the Drug Price Control Order to ensure no artificial shortage of stents is created by manufacturers as also hospitals. 

As per section 3(i) , manufacturers are required to submit manufacturing and distribution data to the government for the next six months. The NPPA has also begun to crack the whip on hospitals overcharging, those not revising the prices, and those not providing patients with quality stents.