Cardiac stents to be more affordable

The DGDA has decided to reduce the base price of all kinds of stents by up to 43 percent, effective from October 15, much to the relief of cardiac patients in need of stenting.

They will now be able to save up to Tk 40,600 per stent (under the current exchange rate).

Consumer rights organisations have praised this decision by the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).

They, however, said the price could be even lower if the government reduced the tax on cardiac stents.

The decision was made at a DGDA meeting with representatives of cardiac stent manufacturers and a technical committee on stent price fixation at the directorate yesterday.

Speaking to The Daily Star after the meeting, Maj Gen Mohammad Yousuf, director general of the DGDA, said, "These price adjustments were made to make this life-saving medical equipment more accessible to patients in need of cardiac care. After a series of discussions over the past several months, we have been able to do it."

Representatives from Medtronic, USA, agreed at the meeting to reduce the base price of the three kinds of stents manufactured by them.

Of those, the base price of Resolute Integrity -- one of the most-used stents in Bangladesh -- will be reduced to $500 from $880.

Similarly, Resolute Onyx's base price for stent has been lowered to $900 from $1,150, while that of Resolute Trucor's -- which is not yet supplied to Bangladesh -- will be $450.

Local representatives of different stent manufacturers from the European Union, Japan, and other countries have also agreed to bring down the base prices of their products.

All European-origin stents, authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will have base prices ranging from $450 to $500.

Meanwhile, the base prices of the EU-origin stents without FDA approval will range from $400 to $450. The same will be applicable to stents produced in Japan.

Prices of stents manufactured in other countries will range from $300 to $350.

On June 25, Abbott Laboratories and Boston Scientific -- two world-leading stent producers and suppliers -- agreed to the price reduction of eight kinds of stents, which are largely used, in another meeting at the DGDA. This reduction will be effective from September 1.

At the moment, as there is no local producer, Bangladesh remains fully dependent on foreign suppliers to meet the demand for around 45,000 cardiac stents per year.

The DGDA did not have any role in the price setting of cardiac stents before a markup formula was imposed on April 19, 2017.

In a joint effort, the DGDA and stent suppliers consulted a technical committee of cardiologists, formed by the directorate itself.

They reached a unanimous decision to set a 1.42 percent markup for cardiac stents.

Since then, the stent prices have remained unchanged until October last year.

But, to the dismay of patients, the prices went up as the DGDA made adjustments to align those with the depreciation of taka against the dollar.

The technical committee argued that the prices can be reduced if the DGDA bargains with the main companies and sets a price cap like it was done in India, where the prices range from Rs 9,842 to Rs 35,835.

Against this backdrop, the DGDA and the committee held a series of meetings with the representatives of major stent-producing companies.

Prof Afzalur Rahman, one of the members of the technical committee who attended yesterday's meeting, told The Daily Star, "This will have a positive impact on the country's cardiac care."

Following the June 25 meeting, Maj Gen Mohammad said they have decided to revise the markup by reducing the retailer commission to five percent from 11.5 and proposing that National Board of Revenue reduce the duties and taxes.

"We already sent a proposal to the NBR for this, but they have yet to agree."

Humayun Kabir, secretary of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, told The Daily Star, "The government-imposed duties and taxes on stents should not be over five percent. We demand the reduction to relieve cardiac patients and their families from financial burdens."