Recently, India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals (DOP) has set up a new five-person committee to further discuss drug and device prices. While Indian drug price caps have been in place for a while, only a few device price controls (out of 6,200 devices) are currently in place. India’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is now looking at price controls for medical devices. To do this, the NPPA is talking to device industry experts, examining international device pricing, etc.
While fairly straightforward price cuts can be established for drugs, India looks at price caps for devices differently since similar devices with different functions and features may not fit neatly under one fixed price cap. Right now, some devices and device procedure prices in India are sky high. Device prices, in some instances, can be 25 times the ex-factory price making this very burdensome for needy patients. High prices are common for some domestically made and imported devices. Price caps in India for devices may make the market less attractive for foreign device makers.
Written by: Ames Gross – President and Founder, Pacific Bridge Medical (PBM)
Mr. Gross founded PBM in 1988 and has helped hundreds of medical companies with regulatory and business development issues in Asia. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the Asian medical markets. Mr. Gross has a BA degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.