“
There's a huge price
disparity in stents and in
absence of an industry
wide consensus of a selfregulatory mechanism and
we can understand the
need for government to
step in to protect
consumers from this huge price disparity and for using
the provision of NLEM via the NPPA route as a short term
measure to address this burning issue being raised at the
Parliament and in the media repeatedly.
Dr G S K Velu, Chairman and MD, Trivitron
AdvaMed quotes the findings
from the recent IMS Health
Study. “It clearly demonstrates
that reduction of stent prices has
not benefited patients so far,”
she said, explaining that the
singular focus on capping prices
of stents will not help improve
access to these medical devices.
“What’s required is a
comprehensive multistakeholder approach, that
involves contributions from
other stakeholders in the access,”
she said.
As per experts who vouch for
imported medical stents, the
study is an eye opener for the
medical devices industry. The
findings clearly reveal that there
has been significant reduction in
stent prices but it does not make
much difference on overall
procedure cost. Improving access
to these coronary stents would
require a comprehensive
approach, and not just capping of
prices. All stakeholders should
look at the study findings as a
gateway to understand the real
issues that impact access to
quality healthcare and improves
health outcomes in India.
Is there a middle ground?
Many feel that the real barrier to
access is not the cost of medical
devices but infrastructure and
manpower constraints. They say
that a patient will not be able to
access stent therapy in spite of
lower prices, in the absence of an
adequate number of trained
physicians and paramedical staff
to effectively use these devices.
This has been supported by the
IMS Health study which
concluded that while the majority
of the population resides in rural
and tier-2/3/4 towns,
infrastructure to provide
healthcare services including
hospitals, hospital beds per
patient, pathology labs and
trained doctors is limited.
"There's a huge price disparity in
stents and in absence of an
industry wide consensus of a
self-regulatory mechanism and
we can understand the need for
government to step in to protect
consumers from this huge price
disparity and for using the
provision of NLEM via the NPPA
route as a short term measure to
address this burning issue being
raised at the Parliament and in
the media repeatedly,” opined
Dr G S K Velu, Chairman and MD
of Trivitron. He calls it a good
move given the circumstances
though he believes that there
needs to be different price control
mechanism other than DPCO for
all medical devices.
Mr Rajiv Nath says that the
domestic and foreign
manufacturers are not the villains
in this context as it is the
hospitals which dictate and drive
the printed MRP of medical
devices in their quests to cover
their costs. “All stakeholders need
to have balanced expectations
from each other. Bringing Stents
under NLEM will stop this
artificial inflation by hospitals,”
he mentioned.
The arguments put forth by
government on price cap are
based on the recommendations of
Subcommittee appointed by the
judiciary. It wouldn’t be wise to
simply dismiss it as an overreaction based on indigenous
concerns. However, it is equally
important to recognize the
genuine concerns of
multinationals on the innovation
and accessibility of quality Stents
to patients. The ‘Make in India’
here doesn’t nece