Stent production should match that of past 3 months: NPPA

Regulator received 30 complaints of overcharging; probe in these cases underway

Meeting manufacturers to discuss the availability of stents in the market, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked them to ensure their production and distribution is on a par with their production in the three months before the price cap came into force. A manufacturer who attended the meeting told Business Standard the NPPA said the eight per cent margin was supposed to be for the manufacturer and distributor and not the hospital, unless it uses its registered pharmacy to source stents. 

Last week, the regulator had invited 16 firms, including Abbott Healthcare, Boston Scientific India and Sahajanand Medical Technologies, for the meeting.

The government has invoked section 3(i) of the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), 2013, making it obligatory for manufacturers to submit production reports to the NPPA for six months. Since stents are part of the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), no manufacturer can withdraw its stents from the market without a six-month notice to the pricing regulator. 

The NPPA had mentioned there were a number of complaints from patients on the price of peripheral stents as well. Peripheral stents include renal stents and iliac stents, among others. Renal stents are used when a renal artery is clogged; blood flow to the kidneys is affected. 

Stenting opens the blockage and restores normal blood flow. An iliac stent is a small wire mesh tube that is used to hold open an iliac artery that has been narrowed by artery disease (atherosclerosis). The largest artery in the body (the aorta) divides into the common iliac arteries. 

As of March 6, 30 complaints of overcharging have reached the regulator. The NPPA is probing these cases. The NPPA also observed that prices of ancillaries have shot up after the NPPA’s order that capped prices of stents on February 13. An official who attended the meeting said, “NPPA also observed that prices of balloon-catheters have been increased by companies after the pricing order and that that shouldn’t have happened.”

The NPPA, along with state drug regulators, has been monitoring the availability of stents ever since the February 13 order. According to the order, prices of all drug-eluting stents were capped at Rs 29,600 and bare metal stents were capped at Rs 7,260.