India regulators flag hospitals for ‘ unethical profiteering ’ on devices

Indian regulators this week flagged the country’s hospitals for “unethical profiteering” from “exorbitant” markups – some as much as 2,000% – for commonly used medical devices. India’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority – which has already slapped price caps on stents and other devices and is auditing alleged hospital overpricing on stenting procedures – cited the markups on syringes, cannulae and catheters. “The profit margins in the non-scheduled devices used in the three cases (syringes, cannula and catheters) are exorbitant and clearly a case of unethical profiteering in a failed market system,” the agency wrote in a Feb. 20 report, noting that “the major beneficiaries of profits in all these cases because of inflated MRPs have been hospitals rather than drugs and devices’ manufacturers.” The report was prompted by complaints from the relatives of patients who died at “four reputed private hospitals” in New Delhi. “In each case, NPPA got complaints of overpricing and inflated bills,” according to the report. Here’s a look at some of the NPPA report’s findings, factoring in the amount of product involved in each example: Device Distributor [INR (USD)] Purchase [INR (USD)] MRP [INR (USD)] Billed to patient* [INR (USD)] Procurement margin (%) Distributor margin (%) IV Infusion Set 5.20 ($0.08) 8.39 ($0.13) 115.00 ($1.77) 2,070.00 ($31.91...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Regulatory/Compliance Wall Street Beat Indian National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) Source Type: news