The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on Monday lowered maximum prices of bare metal and drug-eluting stents (DES) to ₹7,660 and ₹27,890 from ₹8,000 and ₹31,000, respectively. It also decided not to allow sub-categorisation of DESs, which a section of the industry has been lobbying for. “There is no case for sub classification of DES in the light of lack of enough clinical evidence to support superiority of one DES or the other,” the NPPA said in a statement.
Similarly, the authority found that Indian and foreign manufacturers of devices such as cardiac guidewires and balloon catheters have been getting margins ranging from 62 per cent to 405 per cent. While an imported cardiac balloon catheter had an average trade margin of 405 per cent, a locally manufactured cardiac guiding catheter had an average margin of 62 per cent, it said.
The authority has given stakeholders time till March 15 for comments.