The stent price fixing carried out by NPPA has equalized business opportunities and brought a level-playing field for all companies. The Government’s decision is a right step after studying the various models of cardiac care prevalent all over the world, said Swaminathan Jayaraman, chairman and managing director, Vascular Concepts.

“This provides a tremendous opportunity for companies which have quality products to penetrate the market with innovating strategies and garner market share. We expect the top and bottom line of the companies to improve significantly as the trade practices now will be streamlined, he added.

The NPPA decision has rationalized the stent pricing for everybody; companies, hospitals and most importantly the patient. From a patient’s perspective, he now has a very clear knowledge of the pricing of the stent which the hospital will offer. Now a patient can make a choice based on his comfort as to the hospital environment he wants to get the procedure done, Jayaraman told Pharmabiz.

In the year 2007, even though India conducted more stent procedures than China, in this decade China has overtaken India as the No. 1 market in Asia due to their emphasis on pricing and universal health care. India will now follow the same trajectory which will bring tremendous rationalization to the market, he said.

All the developing markets surrounding Asia have announced decisions similar to the NPPA to restrict the pricing of the stents in the respective markets including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Thailand. This provides a great opportunity for companies that are providing good quality products to focus on the developing markets.

The stent market globally comprises: highly-regulated-reimbursed market and the semi-regulated-partially-reimbursed business segments. The market for Vascular Concepts and other Indian companies is the semi-regulated and partially reimbursed markets where pricing and quality play a key factor in the growth of the business. In regulated markets like Europe, Japan and USA, it is still too early for either us or for any Indian medical device company to enter. Even China after garnering considerable market share locally, have not been able to penetrate the regulated markets despite being backed by enormous capital, he said.

There are two main areas for the launch of innovative products in the future. With angioplasty and stenting, extending lives of patients, the heart needs to be taken care of any structural issues. The valves in the heart need to function normally for the rest of the heart to support the bodily functions. There is the Transcatheter heart valve where the Aortic Valve can be replaced with a catheter. There is also considerable initial efforts to look at whether the Mitral and the Tricuspid valve replacements can also be done percutaneously specifically for heart failure patients. We are also developing a device to prevent strokes in patients that suffer from irregular heartbeat.

Another focus area is the Peripheral Endovascular Technologies to treat debilitating diseases in the lower abdomen. Newer technologies like drug-eluting balloons, self-expanding stents and stent grafts can potentially tackle these diseases in future, which is the focus of Vascular Concepts, said Jayaraman.