Drug pricing regulator asks hospitals, stent makers to display MRP on websites

Drug pricing regulator NPPA today asked hospitals to display on their websites prices at which patients are charged for stents, intensifying efforts to make them available at affordable rates.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) also asked stent makers, marketers and importers to undertake similar exercise and display maximum retail prices of their products on their websites.

The instructions are being issued in public interest for compliance of ceiling prices by stent makers, distributors and hospitals, the NPPA said in a notification on Tuesday.

Accordingly, all hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and cardiac centres must display on home page of their websites, the MRP or price of coronary stents at which they are charging/ billing the patients, along with brand name, specifications and names of manufacturing/marketing company, it said.

The regulator also asked all manufacturers/marketers/importers of stents to display on the homepage of their websites the MRP of different brands.

The hospitals and companies are required to list the prices within three working days. In a major relief to lakhs of cardiac patients, the government had slashed prices of life-saving coronary stents by up to 85% by capping them at Rs 7,260 for bare metal ones and Rs 29,600 for drug-eluting variety.

The maximum retail price of bare metal stents (BMS) and drug eluting stents (DES) will be Rs 7,623 and Rs 31,080, respectively, inclusive of VAT and other local taxes, the government had said.