Govt puts cap on knee implant prices

NEW DELHI A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his Independence Day speech that prices of knee surgery will be brought down, country’s drug price regulator— National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) — fixed the price of knee implants between ₹54,000 and ₹1.14 lakh, nearly 70% lower than most surgeries cost currently.

The price for the commonly used cromium cobalt knee implant that rules about 80% of the market share has been fixed at ₹54,720, which is currently available between ₹l lakh and ₹1.5 lakh. Titanium alloy which comes a close second will now cost ₹67, 110 from the earlier costing between ₹2 lakh and ₹2.5 lakh. In a detailed order, NPPA has created different slabs based on the implant material and the part of knee that needs replacement.

As per estimates, the move is likely to result in savings of ₹1,500 crore annually to patients requiring knee replacement surgeries. “It has been noticed that orthopedic-knee implants have unjustified, unreasonable and irrational high trade margins leading to exorbitant prices which affects the out-of-pocket expenses of patients and lakhs of patients are not able to pay for arthroplasty procedures… the estimates of such patients requiring arthroplasty intervention, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, is about 1.5 to 2 crore, of which only about 1 lakh well-off patients are in a position to pay for it every year,” an excerpt from order reads.