Pacemakers to syringes: Why India needs fair pricing for medical devices

Medical device prices in India often exceed their real costs by 10-30 times, leaving patients at the mercy of inflated Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs) and stifling innovation. The current system, rooted in pharmaceutical pricing regulations, fails to account for the unique complexities of medical devices. The Medical Devices Rules, 2017, established quality and safety standards but neglected pricing.

The result is inflated prices for critical devices like pacemakers and heart valves, eroding trust in healthcare and hindering India's aspirations to become a global medtech hub. A proposed system, endorsed by the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD), would implement a trade markup-based capping mechanism at the first point of sale.

This would ensure affordability for patients, viability for distributors, and parity between domestic and foreign manufacturers by capping price bands, such as 50% for devices over Rs 1 lakh, 66% for devices between Rs 1,000-1 lakh, and 75% for devices below Rs 1,000. This approach would also provide easy monitoring and enforcement via GST data, fostering patient trust and encouraging innovation in India's medical device sector.