Daijiworld Media Network

Feb 15: In a major measure of relief to cardiac patients in India, the government on Tuesday February 14 fixed the ceiling price of coronary stents which are used to open up blocked arteries.

Union minister for chemicals and fertilizers, Ananth Kumar announced the slashing of rates of stents by about 85 percent, on Tuesday. The government has already included stents to the national list of essential medicines in view of increasing incidence of heart-related ailments in the country, and more and more patients being advised by cardiologists for insertion of stents.The minister said that reduction of price of stents will not affect the industry as a whole as production cost of stents is low.

This initiative has come as a relief to lacs of people hailing from poor and middle income groups who were finding it difficult to afford the cost of stents even after having been advised to go for them by the doctors.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, in a notification, put a ceiling price on drug eluting stents (DES) and bioresorbable stents at Rs 29,600, and that of bare metal stents at Rs 7,260, effective from Tuesday. The ceiling price excludes local taxes.

The cost of a drug eluting stent currently ranges between Rs 24,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh, and that of a bioresorbable stent is between Rs 1.7 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. A bare metal stent costs between Rs 7,000 and Rs 20,000.

NPPA said it had consulted with various stakeholders on the matter.

"During deliberations, it was found that huge unethical markups are charged at each stage in the supply chain of coronary stents resulting in irrational, restrictive and exorbitant prices in a failed market system driven by information asymmetry between the patient and doctors pushing patients to financial misery," an NPPA notification said.

The NPPA also said that a stent could cost the patient over ten times more by the time it moved from the manufacturer to the patient.

In July 2016, the Union Health Ministry had, through a notification, included coronary stents under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM). Drugs and devices listed in the NLEM have to be sold at the price fixed by NPPA. This was after the Delhi High Court sought government action on a public interest litigation (PIL) appeal seeking price control on stents.

With IANS Inputs