Centre revises coronary stent price caps, allows inflation‑linked hike

The Centre, through the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), has notified revised ceiling prices for coronary stents effective April 2026, updating caps that had been held broadly stable except for periodic inflation pass‑throughs. The move comes under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order framework, which allows device makers to adjust prices annually based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data while keeping them within notified ceilings to protect patients from excessive billing.

Under the new notification, the ceiling price for bare metal stents has been set at around ₹10,762 per unit, and for drug‑eluting stents (DES) at roughly ₹39,186 per unit, excluding GST in both cases. The DES category covers metallic drug‑eluting stents as well as bioresorbable or biodegradable variants, continuing the policy of treating high‑end DES under a single capped bracket rather than allowing premium pricing for newer platforms. Manufacturers whose current MRPs are below these ceilings may take a limited upward revision aligned with the permitted WPI‑based increase, but cannot exceed the notified caps.

For hospitals and cath labs, the NPPA has reiterated that they must bill patients strictly at or below the ceiling prices plus applicable GST, and cannot club additional device‑linked charges to circumvent the cap. State drug controllers and health departments have been asked to step up monitoring and inspections to ensure compliance, amid past complaints that some facilities were inflating angioplasty package costs despite stent price caps. For patients, this means coronary interventions will become marginally more expensive from April due to the inflation‑linked increase, but the overall out‑of‑pocket burden on stents remains significantly lower than pre‑cap levels when similar devices could cost well above ₹1 lakh.
MB Bureau