Concerned about reports of rising prices of medical devices including stents, the Indian government has asked device makers to review their pricing and submit details of the maximum retail price of their products to the Indian drug regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, the entity that also oversees medical devices pricing.
“There have been cases where companies are selling imported stents for at least 3-to-4 times of its actual landed cost in India, so this is not justified, the companies need to review their pricing”, a senior official said. Landed cost is the price at which the product was imported.
“Reports have been received by the government claiming that stent selling companies give huge commissions to hospitals and doctors and that is also one of the reasons they are overpriced”, the official added.
“The malpractice of arbitrary maximum retail price labeling is widely prevalent and the situation is serious enough to warrant immediate government intervention to rectify the situation,” said Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator of the Association of Indian Medical Device Manufacturers.
Nath added that it is a duty of the Indian government to ensure a level playing field between imported and domestically produced medical devices. The government’s scrutiny was welcomed by the majority of Indians who are not covered by insurance and have high out-of-pocket healthcare expenses.
