Medical devices like pulse oximeters, BP machine to get cheaper; Health Minister says price cap will hugely reduce prices
To reduce the cost of medical devices for the general public, the government has announced a price cap for five medical devices including Pulse oximeter, nebulizer andigital thermometer. More details here.
The existing price for pulse oximeter is around Rs 2,999. This has been revised to Rs 1,250. Photo: Pixabay
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has capped the trade margin for five medical devices — Pulse Oximeter, Blood Pressure Monitoring Machine, Nebulizer, Digital Thermometer, and Glucometer. In other words, these medical devices will get cheaper and affordable for the public.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has assured that this decision will hugely reduce prices of Medical devices.
The cap is effective from July 20, said the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers in a press statement release today on July 24.
The NPPA, a government regulatory agency that controls the prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India, released the revised maximum retail prices for these five categories of medical devices that would reduce their retail costs.
As per the data available on NPPA, the existing price for pulse oximeter is around Rs 2,999. This has been revised to Rs 1,250. Similarly, for a blood pressure monitoring device, the existing price is Rs 2,610, this has been priced at Rs 1,425. A nebuliser earlier priced at Rs 2,850 will be available at Rs 1,959. A digital thermometer earlier priced at Rs 190 will cost Rs 114. A glucometer available earlier at Rs 1,590 will now be priced at Rs 675. The data mentioned is for Morepen Laboratories Ltd.
The actual difference between the earlier and revised MRPs will vary from brand to brand and device to device.
The margin was capped up to 70 per cent on price to distributor (PTD) levels. After the latest move, a total of 684 products, brands of such medical devices have witnessed downward revision of prices, the ministry added.
Price cap is imposed by the government to control the maximum prices charged by the suppliers and make commodities affordable to the general public.
The maximum reduction is reported in MRP of Pulse Oximeter (fingertip) — 88 per cent. Similarly, the reduction for Pulse Oximeter (others) is 47 per cent, Blood Pressure Monitoring Machine is 83 per cent. For both Nebulizer and Digital Thermometer, the reduction is 77 per cent each, and for Glucometer it is 80 per cent.
The recent announcement is being claimed as ‘a significant decision by the Union Government’.