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The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has revealed new data on the trade margins of knee systems used in revision surgeries, putting the maximum price at a staggering ₹9 lakh.
The total trade margin — which includes margins for manufacturers, importers, distributors and the hospitals — stands at a high 369 per cent, according to the figures released by the NPPA.
The data shows that an implant, which a maximum landed cost of ₹1.98 lakh would finally set the patient back by ₹9 lakh. Earlier industry bodies had objected to the prices given by the NPPA, which had said placed the maximum cost of a total knee system at ₹4.13 lakh. The Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) had claimed, “The MRP of the implant highlighted in the article as ₹4,13,000 is used in rare cases, where the original implant has failed and a revision procedure needs to be carried out.”
However, the data submitted by NPPA shows that the cost of implants in case of revision surgeries is nearly twice as high.
The NPPA has further clarified that the minimum and maximum prices given are single company data. One knee system involves about four different components and the medical devices industry had protested that the total knee system prices revealed were an addition of the maximum prices of all these components, which may not be from the same company, and called the figure ‘misleading’.
Industry members had also met NPPA officials earlier on Wednesday. In a briefing soon after, Pavan Choudary, Director General, MTaI, told the media that the organisation would submit a proposal that could benefit “the government, the patient as well as the industry.”
Choudary said they were not in favour of price control on knee implants and would be keen on self-regulation.
The data further shows clearly that the maximum price inflation takes place not at the end of the manufacturers or the importers but at the hands of distributors and hospitals. While the average margin of the importer stands at about 56 per cent, the average margin of distributor and hospital stands at 200 per cent.
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