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Imported Medical Devices Inflate
Patient’s Bill
It has been noted that using imported high-end medical
devices in complex disease management highly inflates a patient’s bill. Around
75 per cent of the bill is incurred by the usage of imported devices. In
comparison, India-developed low-end devices currently constitutes only 5 per
cent of a patient’s bill.
The expenditure and our dependence on imported medical
devices can be curbed if the government allows Indian manufactures to start
producing high-end medical devices, noted senior cardiologists from across the
country. They have gathered at the three day National Interventional Council
organised by the Cardiological Society of India, which will conclude today.
Dr. Praveen Chandra, chairman, interventional cardiology,
Medanta Heart Institute, also the organising secretary of the conference said:
“For the first time in a medical conference in India, we have facilitated
doctors and industry from India to interact on a common platform and have
discussion to work closely and purposefully towards developing a more
self-reliant country in manufacturing high-end medical devices.”
Stating that the Indian medical device industry is developing
very fast, he noted that the cost benefit that Indian manufactures are offering
is immense.
“Indian doctors have been using it for the past 15 years and
they opine that the products’ standards have evolved to match international
quality. There was a ray of hope in India for affordable stents when former
President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam came out with a stent called
Kalam-Raju Stent that could be manufactured for Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,000. This
stent was never patronised and plans to further do research and improve the
stent were shelved. In India, U.S. multinationals dominate with more than 70 per
cent market share with a price range of Rs. 45,000 to Rs. 1.20 lakh per stent,’’
he said.
Manufactures, too, add that India has the potential of making
high-end medical devices for the management of complex diseases and thus bring
down the patients’ bills considerably.
“To be self-reliant, the government can help us by creating
industry-friendly infrastructure and giving us subsidies,’’ noted Mr. Gurmit
Singh Chug, managing director, Translumina Therapeutics.
“India has always been considered to manufacture low-end and
low-cost products with no clinical evidence to prove their efficacy. This now
holds untrue. A drug eluting stent manufactured in India called YUKON PC was
reported to be equally safe and efficacious by three acclaimed international
journals, namely the Journal of American College of Cardiology, European Heart
Journal and Euro Intervention ,’’ he added.
Updated: April 5, 2015 07:49 IST
(Ref:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/imported-medical-devicesinflate-patients-bill/article7069663.ece)
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