New prices of coronary stent fixed

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has upwardly revised the prices of coronary stents, taking inflation into account.

The ceiling price of drug-eluting stents has now been fixed at Rs 30,080 — increased by more than Rs 2,000 from the existing price tag of Rs 27,890.

The cost of bare metal stents has been enhanced marginally to be pegged at Rs 8,261 from the existing ceiling price of Rs 7,660.

The new ceiling prices would come into effect from April 1, 2019, but a notification issued by the NPPA is silent when the next price revision would happen.

Coronary stents are one of few medical devices which were brought under price control by the NDA government, which later came under tremendous pressure from the industry and foreign government to revoke the price control order.

The new prices have been fixed after taking 4.2% wholesale price index into account.