Following the notification of coronary stents as scheduled drug by the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) on December 21 this year, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has started the process of stakeholder consultation for fixing the ceiling prices of coronary stents.

As the national drug price regulator, the NPPA is responsible for fixing/revising ceiling/retail prices of all the coronary stents. For stakeholder consultation, the NPPA has decided to convene two separate meetings on January 4, 2017 and has invited medical devices manufacturing, importing and marketing associations, business houses and chambers of commerce representing the medical devices sector.

It has convened two meetings on January 5, 2017 also, and for these meetings it has invited civil society associations, non-government organisations and any other civil society stakeholder; and all India hospitals/nursing home associations involved in cardiac care procedures and dealing with cardiac stents. On January 6, the NPPA will hold two separate meetings, one with eminent cardiologists, and another with medical device distributors, carry forward agents, their associations or in individual capacities. For consultation the NPPA has invited a total of 54 companies and industry associations like ASSOCHAM, BDMA, CIPI, CII, FICCI, IDMA, IPA, OPPI, MTAI, etc. It has also invited NGOs like Consumer Association of India, Oxfam India, PHFI, AIDAN, etc.

Meanwhile, the NPPA has initiated the exercise of determination of ceiling price of coronary stents. All manufacturers, marketers and importers have been given last opportunity to submit the price to retailer (PTR), price to stockists (PTS), price to distributor (PTD), price to hospitals (PTH), MAT and MRP data for the months of May, July and November 2016 for all types and categories of coronary stents. The different types of coronary stents include bare metal stents (BMS), drug eluting stents (DES), metallic DES, bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS), biodegradable stents, etc.