MRP of cardiac stents is inflated and more than 300 to 700% of actual cost

Mumbai, May 19: Charging the importers and distributors of cardiac stent of making over 100 per cent profit, Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Tuesday said it has asked the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to regulate its high prices . It has come to FDA's notice that demand for cardiac stents has increased considerably and also the fact that cardiac stents are being exorbitantly priced, FDA Commissioner Harshadeep Kamble said here Tuesday. (Read: Palbociclib approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for breast cancer)

There were complaints from the public and also from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) regarding overpricing and overcharging of cardiac stents to needy patients, the senior IAS official said. Based on its inputs, Maharashtra FDA's Vigilance Branch conducted a detailed probe against a major importing company dealing in cardiac stents. The probe included investigation of six distributors and also involved seven hospitals in Mumbai, Pune and Nasik division, Kamble said. The enquiry was conducted to know the cost to the importing company, also cost to the distributors, hospitals and cost to the patients vis-a-vis maximum retail price (MRP) of the cardiac stents, he said. (Read: Pfizer breast cancer drug gets early FDA approval)

The study revealed that the MRP itself is exaggerated and to the tune of more than 300 to 700 percent of the actual cost of importing cardiac stents by the importing company, Kamble said. The profit margin earned by the importing company with respect to its distributors on an average is about 120 per cent and the average profit margin earned by distributors to the hospital is about 125 per cent, he said. (Read: Snapdeal.com raided by FDA for selling prescription drugs online)

Source: PTI

Photo source: Getty images

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