Treatment costs are set to rise for heart patients after the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority greenlit a price hike for coronary stents. The life-saving devices will see prices rise by nearly Rs 700 in some cases as the MRP is adjusted for inflation. Stents are inserted into narrowed or blocked coronary arteries in order to keep them open and improve blood flow to the heart — often a crucial part of treatment for many patients.
According to a Business Standard report, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority issued a circular on Thursday directing all manufacturers and importers of coronary stents to review and revise the cost (if it was lower) by 1.74028% of the wholesale price index for 2024. The publication also cited the memo as noting that manufacturers who did not comply with the ceiling price would be liable to deposit the overcharged amount along with interest.
The update came a day after the NPPA released a similar notice allowing manufacturers to increase the price of scheduled drugs as per the WPI. A circular released by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers indicated that the annual change in WPI stood at (+) 1.74028% during the calendar year 2024 over the corresponding period in 2023. The memo also indicated that manufacturers could now increase the MRP of scheduled formations accordingly without prior permission from the government.
According to the stent prices outlined on the Fortis Healthcare website, the ceiling price for bare metal stents by Abbott Vascular (with GST) is currently Rs 10,509.07. This number will soon rise to Rs Rs 10,692.69 per unit. Meanwhile the price of drug-eluting, bio-metallic and bioresorbable vascular scaffold stents is likely to rise to a maximum cap of Rs 38,930 per unit.
According to a World Heart Federation report from 2023, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death across the world with the number of casualties growing exponentially over the past few years. CVDs reportedly took 20.5 million lives across the world in 2021. Data released by the National Crime Records Bureau further indicates that 32,457 people died in 2022 after suffering heart attacks.