NPPA to cap coronary stent prices

Will meet industry representatives this month for inputs on stent prices

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is in the process of fixing the ceiling price of coronary stents. According to NPPA sources, that there would be two prices for stents - one for plain metal stents and the other for drug-eluting stents. That latter category is more expensive. Stents could be priced anywhere between Rs 25,000 and Rs 1,25,000.

Stents were listed by the government as an essential medicine earlier this year when a sub-committee was formed to assess whether coronary stents need to be categorised as essential medicines, which come under the ambit of the NPPA for the purpose of regulating prices.

The price ceiling will be effective once the health and family welfare ministry and the department of pharma issue legislative orders for the same. The regulation of prices will be across all imports and domestically manufactured stents.

The NPPA is scheduled to meet industry representatives later this month to get their inputs on stent prices. The pharma sector has so far resisted any kind of price regulation of stent. In fact, the industry has said drugs and medical devices must be treated differently and that medical devices should not be regulated in terms of their prices, unlike drugs.

NPPA sources said regulating prices of stents would be a complex job. In the case of drugs, a base price is taken but this is not available for stents. Drug prices are generally revised by the NPPA by taking the average of industry estimates.

Industry stakeholders say that a ceiling in stent prices won't make a difference for the patient as they'll go for what the doctors prescribe. The committee's intention while placing coronary stents in the essential drugs list was primarily to ensure medical devices are available to everyone.

STENT PRICING GIVES HEARTACHE

• NPPA to have different prices for plain metal stents & drug-eluting stents
   
• Drug-eluting stents to be priced differently than normal metal stents

Industry sources:

• Stents can cost anywhere between Rs 2,500 and Rs 1.25 lakh
   
• Drug-eluting stents to be more expensive than plain metal stents
   
• Ceiling prices of stents will not bring down patients' worries

NPPA sources:

• Jumping into "hot soup" by fixing ceiling price for stents
  

 

Fixing prices of stents to be a difficult task