Average trade margin on knee implants as high as 313%: NPPA

Drug price regulator NPPA today said it has found average trade margin on orthopaedic knee implants to be as high as 313 per cent and has invited comments from stakeholders for discussion on the issue.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) said it analysed trade margins in the orthopaedic knee implants based on available data from official sources, manufacturers and importers.
The average margin of importer on knee implants was found to be 76 per cent, while that of distributor and hospital was 135 per cent.
NPPA further said that as per its analysis, the average total trade margin on knee implants was 313 per cent.

In terms of price, the regulator said the landed price of knee implants ranged between Rs 23,408 and Rs 65,781.
However, the minimum and maximum price to distributor was between Rs 23,513 and Rs 1,67,162.
The minimum and maximum retail price of such products were Rs 59,091 and Rs 4,13,059 respectively, as per NPPA analysis.
The drug price regulator said it has made the analysis public for transparency and "stakeholders may like to communicate their comments/view to NPPA within a week".