Kochi: Despite intense pressure from foreign stent manufacturers and hospital lobbies in the country the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority on Monday issued orders to further lower the price of the drug eluting coronary stents to Rs 27,890 from Rs 29,600 fixed last year. There was intense speculation that the stent price would shoot up with the NPPA under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, deciding to review the prices following intense pressure from both the lobbies.
The NPPA has decided to effect a marginal rise in the price of bare metal stents from Rs 7260 to Rs 7,660 this year. The NPPA has also rejected the contentions of the foreign stent producing firms that there are different types of stents like Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS)/Biodegradable Stents apart from drug eluting stents and they be allowed much higher price. The NPPA brought all of them under the same price of Rs 27,890.
This was following the recommendation to this effect by an expert committee appointed by the Ministry of Health of Family Welfare this year to look into complaints regarding it. Before the NPPA came down on stent prices last year and regulated it, the companies and hospitals were extracting huge margins by fleecing the patients. Even now there are complaints of overcharging in this regard, off record.
