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In A Big Relief To Heart Patients, Government Caps Prices Of Coronary Stents

Swarajya StaffFeb 14, 2017, 07:44 PM | Updated 07:44 PM IST
Hospital staff shift a patient at the Narayana Hrudayalaya cardiac-care hospital in Bengaluru. (Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images)

Hospital staff shift a patient at the Narayana Hrudayalaya cardiac-care hospital in Bengaluru. (Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images)


In a move that will benefit cardiac patients across India, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has today (14 February) put a ceiling on the prices of coronary stents -- small metal mesh tubes used to open up narrowed or blocked arteries.

As reported by Isha Trivedi for Mint, the price of bare metal stents has been capped at Rs 7,620 per unit, and that of drug-eluting stents and biodegradable stents has been fixed at Rs 29,600 per unit, excluding the local tax. This new price will come into effect immediately.

Taking up almost 95 per cent of the market space, drug-eluting stents currently cost anywhere from Rs 30,000 to Rs 80,000. Dissolvable stents, on the other hand, cost as much as Rs 2-3 lakh. A bare metal stent, on the other hand, costs in the range of Rs 7,000 to Rs 20,000, as per the Mint report.

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