Hyderabad: The price of syringes and needles must be capped and they must be brought under the National List of Essential Medicines, manufacturers said. Their demand is in the context of manufacturers being blamed by doctors and patients’ groups for the high cost of these basic devices which is inflating hospital bills. The All India Syringes and Needle Manufacturers Association (AISNMA) stated that the products of registered companies were not highly priced and that it was the hospital which was adding to the maximum retail price and overcharging the patient.
With hospital bills now required to give a detailed break-up of cost of devices, medicines and care provided to the patient, the price of needles, syringes, catheters and IV fluids are figuring in the list which are found to be exorbitantly high. Mr Rajiv Nath, president of AISNMA said, “Hospitals and doctors are blaming manufacturers for selling the products at high MRP which is not so. The price cap or cap on trade margins is being proposed so that hospitals are also clear that this is the minimum cost at which the device is available in the market. This will help to do away with a lot of unethical manufacturers in the market.”
Presently, there is no understanding in the medical sector about what would be the maximum retail price of needles and syringes as there is no standardisation of the price. A senior manufacturer who has units in India and Eastern Europe explained, “There requires to be a base line set to decide on the pricing. Hence if there is a price cap, the manufacturers will take up this work and create a base line for pricing.” Self-regulation and responsible pricing was also proposed by the manufacturers where voluntarily trade margins were capped to a maximum of 75 per cent over the discounted net ex-factory price. But this self-regulation has also not worked at the ground level as the prices in the bills are usually exorbitantly high.
Four companies and importers had opposed the self-regulation and were also not keen to be a part of the price capping but the other 100 manufacturers were keen that there was regulation so that they had clarity and good marketing practices for their devices. The syringes and needles category covers disposables, auto disable and reuse prevention syringes, needle stick prevention, insulin pen needles and others.
