- Earlier this month the NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) in India had held a 3 days summit in New Delhi to discuss the ceiling prices of coronary stents.
- Now, according to latest reports, the NPPA may cut down the prices of the coronary stents by at least 50 per cent.
- Patients may get stents at a cost less than Rs. 70,000 (USD 1027).
- Patient access bodies insist that the cost of coronary stents should be cut down to as less as Rs. 22, 500 (USD 330) from a whopping Rs. 1.95 lakh (USD 2860).
- But the problem faced by the stent manufacturing units is that the cost of production of the latest, more improved Drug Eluting Stents are far more than the market price of regular stents.
- Debates are going on right now between the NPPA, the drug pricing regulators and the patient access bodies regarding the determination of the correct price which will not only make the coronary stents available to patients but also would maintain the stent industry's viability.
Source: The Economic Times