The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority on Monday said that patients who had undergone angioplasties before the price ceiling was announced would be eligible for reduced rates if they are billed on February 14, the day on which the circular came into implementation.
Shutting down the critics who have been slamming the NPPA about the price cap being too harsh on manufacturers and distributors, it also said 8% margins were calculated within the price cap.
NPPA’s chairman Bhupendra Singh said that when any imported product lands here, the manufacturers’ cost is already recovered. The stents that were being made available at higher prices “have not established any superiority claim. Therefore, the stents now available within the price cap are safe and absolutely fine quality wise,” he said.
The price cap on stents came in place last week. The prices of bare metal stents was capped at Rs. 7,260 while the drug eluting stents and biodegradable stents were capped at Rs. 29,600. Earlier the bare metal stents would cost up to Rs. 8000, drug eluting stents would cost anywhere between Rs. 50,000 and Rs 1.60 lakh while the biodegradable stents were priced at Rs 1.90 lakh.
