- Maharashtra vows high-level probe into huge markups on common medical devices
- Revenue Minister calls pricing disparity a blunder and plans Cabinet discussion
- Survey found markups up to 2,841% on items like IV sets and syringes
Maharashtra has promised a high-level investigation into what officials have described as irrational and unjustified markups on commonly used medical devices, after an NDTV report highlighted pricing disparities of as much as 2,800%.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule called the margins a blunder and said the state government would take up the issue at its next Cabinet meeting. He also said the matter would be raised with the Centre.
“This is not just negligence. This is a blunder. We will take the NDTV campaign forward and initiate a major investigation,” Bawankule told NDTV.
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The minister said the wide gap between procurement costs and prices charged to patients amounted to a massive betrayal, adding that such pricing practices were effectively playing with the lives of patients.
The Maharashtra State Price Monitoring Resource Unit (MSPMRU), under the state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), conducted a market survey to examine pricing patterns of medical devices sold in retail and trade markets.
The survey covered products including IV sets, syringes, nebuliser oxygen masks and other medical devices commonly used in inpatient departments. It found markups of up to 29 times the procurement cost in some cases.
An IV infusion set manufactured by Mediplus Haryana, for instance, had a reported procurement price of Rs 11.05 and a printed MRP of Rs 325, a difference equivalent to a 2,841% markup over the procurement price.
Another IV set, Lyvofusion, showed a reported margin of 2,091%, according to the survey findings cited by Maharashtra FDA officials.
A 10 ml syringe manufactured by Lifelong Meditech was procured for Rs 6.75 but carried an MRP of Rs 57.20. An adult nebuliser mask kit manufactured by Vinjoh Healthcare had a reported price of Rs 45 but was sold to patients at Rs 652.
Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has called for greater transparency in the pricing of medical consumables and urged the Centre to review the issue.
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“A trade margin of 2,800% is by any terms not acceptable, either as a consumer or as a hospital or as a regulator,” Mundhe told NDTV.
Mundhe has written to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, seeking intervention on the pricing of commonly used hospital consumables.
According to Mundhe, scheduled medicines are subject to price controls under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, while many medical devices and consumables fall outside the same framework.
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