NPPA heat on hospitals for failing to provide stent details

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has said hospitals not providing details of the brand of stents they are selling patients would be prosecuted under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

The drug price regulator also said hospitals not providing these details could be accused of distorting evidence deliberately.

On February 13, NPPA fixed the ceiling price of drug-eluting stents at Rs 30,000 and of bare metal ones at Rs 7,500. In 2016, 600,000 stents were used in the country, over 90 per cent of which were drug-eluting and priced between Rs 24,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh then.