Pharma players face the heat, NPPA in 'no compromise' mood

The country's drug pricing regulator, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) informed on Monday that the capped prices of coronary stents that they had announced last week, has gained 8 per cent trade margin, which is a boost for manufacturers and importers.

This is certainly a desperate attempt coming from NPPA to portray the fact that even after a cap on the prices of the critical component, the pharma players are not going to lose much. However, the gained trade margin is much lower in comparison to what manufacturers were gaining before stent prices were capped. NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh had said that since there is not many channels for supplying stents directly, so people working from the manufacturers' level to the end user will be benefitted through this increased trade margin. 

It may be recalled here that NPPA had last week capped the prices of bare metal stent at Rs 7,260 and drug-eluting stent (DES) and biodegradable stents at Rs 29,600. Both the prices are exclusive of value added tax. DES constitutes 95 per cent of the market.