Cap prices of drugs and medical appliances also: Doctors body

New Delhi: After the government fixed a price range for knee implants, a national body of medics working to promote ethical healthcare has demanded that a cap should be put on the cost of drugs and other medical appliances also.

Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH) has submitted a detailed document regarding the prices of various types of implants and medicines to the chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).

After cardiac stents, the government fixed a price range for knee implants from Rs 54,000 to Rs 1.14 lakh, nearly 70 per cent lower than most surgeries currently cost.

Time has come now that the price of medicines and other medical appliances should be streamlined on the pattern of coronary stents and orthopaedic implants, ADEH said in a statement.

"We have learnt that the government formed a committee to review the medicine prices which has recommended substantial reduction in prices of medicines but the government is not making it public.

"We demand that this report should be made public immediately. The government should formulate a trade policy for the pharmaceutical products," it said.