NPPA Extends Coronary Stent Caps Through 2019 With Modest Revisions

India’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has extended its order imposing coronary stent price caps, with a slight increase for bare metal stents and a dip for drug eluting stents.

The new price caps came into effect on Feb. 13, a day after NPPA’s initial decision to fix ceiling prices on stents was set to expire, and it will remain in place through March 31, 2019.

The authority held three stakeholder meetings to revisit its February 2017 decision to introduce  sharp decreases in prices, and it heard a lot of the pushback citing research showing that any cost saving resulting from price controls have not been passed on to patients in the past.

Industry groups such as AdvaMed argued the caps would negatively impact manufacturers’ ability to pay for future R&D investments and job creation.