NPPA slashes stent prices again

The National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA), India’s drug pricing regulator, on Monday, revised the prices of coronary stents.

NPPA increased the price of bare metal stents by 5.5 per cent to Rs. 7,660 and reduced the price of drug-eluting stents by about 5.7 per cent to Rs 27,890 which comes as a setback for the estimated US$5 billion medical device industry.

Exactly one year ago, NPPA had lowered the coronary stent prices by as much as 85 per cent. According to the NPPA, the share of domestic stent makers has risen following the price cap on coronary stents. Preliminary data suggests a 4 per cent shift in favour of domestic manufacturers. However, domestic stent manufacturers felt the price made it non-viable for them to sustain.

In recent years, the government has taken aggressive stance against multinational healthcare organisations, slashing price on drugs used to treat ailments like diabetes, cancer and HIV/AIDS.