Report: Indian legislator seeks price caps for 20 medical devices

A member of India’s parliament asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday to cap the prices on 20 medical devices, in addition to the orthopedic and cardiac products that are already cost-limited there.

The caps enacted by India’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority on knee implants and cardiac stents have caused other major medtech players to seek to withdraw their devices from India. In April, the NPPA rejected applications from Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Abbott (NYSE:ABT) to pull their respective Resolute Onyx and Absorb stents (Abbott has since taken Absorb off the global market, citing lackluster sales). The NPPA is already considering further caps for other medical devices.

Dharam Vira Gandhi, a doctor and parliamentarian from Punjab state wrote a letter to Modi asking that additional products be capped, according to Reuters.

“Currently, there are no restrictions on the healthcare charges in the country,”Gandhi wrote, calling for further controls “at the earliest.

“This would save millions of families in the country from financial hardship and debt trap emanating from the huge healthcare costs,” he wrote.

NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh declined to comment about the letter to the wire service.

In the U.S., the national medical device lobby and the government are pressing India to do away with the caps. AdvaMed in October filed a petition with the U.S. Trade Representative, looking to suspend Generalized System of Preferences benefits to India.

Earlier in September, the NPPA said it won’t be revising its cap on coronary stents, applied earlier this year, until Feb. 2018.

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