Mundhe expands crusade; targets big margins on medical consumables

The FDA’s move follows a survey it conducted across 20-odd hospitals in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune and Sambhaji Nagar in July this year, which revealed a huge price gap between the actual procurement of medical aids and the MRP rates charged to patients

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has written to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to cap prices on all medical and surgical consumables in hospitals.

Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Munde (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

The NPPA is an independent regulator that oversees pricing of drugs and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.

The FDA’s move follows a survey it conducted across 20-odd hospitals in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune and Sambhaji Nagar in July this year, which revealed a huge price gap between the actual procurement of medical aids and the MRP rates charged to patients. For instance, the FDA found hospital consumables like an IV infusion priced at ₹11.05 but being sold at a printed MRP of ₹325, a price gap of 2,841%. Similarly, a syringe procured at ₹6.75 carried an MRP of ₹57.20 and a catheter procured at ₹29.41 which was being sold at an MRP of ₹310.

“Similar price gaps were found in the charges levied for basic medical or surgical procedures like oxygen masks, transfusion sets, and syringes, which are an inherent part of hospital procedures. It was not just doubling or tripling of the prices; but an exorbitant and unjustifiable, hike” said an FDA official requesting anonymity. “Though we received complaints from patients about being overcharged, we were unable to act against them since these hospitals often charged within the MRP.”

On Tuesday, FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe posted on X, “…These are not elective purchases. Patients cannot compare prices, seek alternatives, or question a number printed on a box while receiving care and the MRP itself is often fixed upstream by manufacturers and distributors disconnected from the trade price by a wide unexplained margin. The result is a system where the party b earing the cost has the least information to evaluate it.”

The NPPA’s key responsibilities include fixing and revising drug prices as per the provisions of the Drugs Prices Control Order (DPCO), monitoring compliance and availability of drugs and rendering advice on pharmaceutical policies. The NPPA also provides ceiling price to all drugs notified under Schedule-I of DPCO and so far, has given ceiling price to 928 scheduled formulations and retail prices to around 3,111 new drugs. By invoking powers under Para 19 of DPCO, 2013, it has also regulated prices of 106 anti-diabetic and cardiovascular drugs; coronary stents and knee implants in public interest, their website mentions.

Clarifying the FDA’s role in this, the official explained: “The FDA can step in only if the quality of the drugs is not maintained or if the medical drugs are found to be sold beyond the MRP, which is not happening in these cases. Hence the surveillance and sharing the findings with the Centre,” he said.