Doctors, pharma companies rake in cash with nexus on stents

NEW DELHI: A stringent price cap imposed on coronary stents, has failed to break the nexus between medical device manufacturers and hospitals with the two colluding to push noncoronary stents and other high-end life-saving products to the consumers for huge margins.

Documents with quotations from suppliers to hospitals reviewed by TOI show that medical devices and different kinds of stents other than the coronary kind which have been brought under control are offered to hospitals at prices far lower than the MRP charged from the consumer. For instance, one quotation shows that removable esophageal controlled release stent with an MRP of Rs 92,800 was offered to a hospital for Rs 64,960. Most of these are critical devices used in surgeries, while some are even prescribed to cancer patients, doctors said.

Medical experts said this is a usual practice with most critical care products including stents, implants, cancer medicines and so on.

“If the government is serious about safeguarding consumer interest, then it must bring out an overarching policy and not take a piecemeal approach by price capping just one product,“ says Dr G S Grewal, former president, Punjab Medical Council.

While prices of medical devices other than coronary stents are also under the Drug Price Control Order, companies are allowed to fix launch prices and then implement an annual hike of up to 10%. Moreover, there are no legal provisions to check or restrict firms, suppliers and hospitals from inflating prices by adding margins, commissions and incentives to suppliers, doctors or chemists.

Doctors and industry executives often claim huge margins are built into the original cost to push particular brands, high-end products and sometimes unnecessary implants and surgeries are carried out for profits.