After stents, Govt brings knee implants under price ambit

New Delhi: In a major decision, the Government on Wednesday capped the prices of various knee implants sold in the country, leading to a total saving of Rs 1,500 crore to patients. After the price fixation, the prices of artificial knee implants sold in the country would now cost from Rs 54, 720 to Rs 1,13,950 against the earlier price range from Rs 1,58,324 to Rs 2,76,869.

The capping comes into effect from Wednesday onwards, Union Minister for Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ananth Kumar told mediapersons while announcing the major decision.

Terming the move a patient-friendly, the Union Minister said that it's a step to prevent unethical profiteering and ensure affordable and quality healthcare for the last man.

"Based on the numbers of about 1 to 1.5 lakh orthopaedic knee procedures done in India every year, there will be a saving of about Rs 1500 crore for the people of India per annum," Kumar said, adding that as per the data analysis of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), there was a huge margin in trade which was found to be unreasonable and in a way unethical 'profiteering'.

Hailing the decision, NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh said, "It's a move taken in the interest of patients with the objective to provide affordable treatment. It will help reduce medical expenses incurred on orthopaedic procedures."

"The WHO estimates that by 2020 osteoarthritis is going to be the fourth largest cause of immobility in the world. Since India has about 1.2 to 1.5 crore orthopaedic patients who require orthopaedic implant surgery, the price ceiling would make poor patients to avail the costly knee surgery to save their lives," the minister said.

It's worth mentioning that Millennium Post had on June 30 reported that government is all set to regulate the prices of orthopaedic implants.

After the price ceiling by NPPA, the new price of the standard and most widely used complete knee implant would be Rs 54,720 plus GST against the existing price of Rs 1,58,324. Similarly, the special metal like titanium and oxidized zirconium would now cost Rs 76,600 plus GST against the existing price of Rs 2,49,251, the high flexibility implant would now cost Rs 56, 490 plus GST against the earlier price of Rs 1,81,728 and revision implants for second surgery would now cost Rs 1,13,950 plus GST against the previous price of Rs 2,76,869.

Notably, the government had in February slashed the maximum price of life-saving heart stents implants by up to 85 per cent by capping them at Rs 7,260 for bare metal ones and Rs 29,600 for drug eluting variety.