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As the government starts a new process to identify essential devices and medicines to bring them under price control, prices of some medical devices like syringes, needles, IV Cannulas, intraocular lens, cardiac catheters and guide wires are likely to go down.\nTo shortlist drugs and devices that should be available in adequate numbers and assured quality at any given time in a healthcare setting, a newly-constituted committee on the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) met the stakeholders on Thursday. The medical device manufacturers who attended the meeting have recommended that the prices of Syringes, Needles, IV Cannulas, IOL, Cardiac Catheters & Guidewires among other medical devices should be regulated.
\nRajiv Nath, the forum coordinator of Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMed) called the move positive. \u201cA Positive start to a long drawn fresh process has been initiated by Secretary DHR to compartmentalise decision for defining essentiality for a healthcare product whether medicine or medical disposables & consumables or other medical devices or hygiene products. This standing committee will ensure the widespread availability of what\u2019s defined essential. The role of the regulator and other Healthcare stakeholders of which of these essential healthcare products will be coming under price Controls and whether needed or not will be an independent process going forward, we were assured. We have also been asked to suggest devices which could be used to limit the spread of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).”
\nThe NLEM committee, headed by Balram Bhargava, secretary, department of health research and director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, has been entrusted with a task to decide on essential medicines and devices and send the list to a second committee, comprising Rajiv Kumar, vice-chairman of Niti Aayog, Preeti Sudan, secretary of the health ministry, and P. Raghavendra Rao, secretary of the department of pharmaceuticals, for deciding which ones are to be brought under price control. This is completely different from the existing mechanism in which all essential medicines were brought under price control. Earlier, the health ministry prepared a list of drugs eligible for price regulation, following which the department of pharmaceuticals, incorporated them into schedule-1 of DPCO (drug price control order). The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) fixed the prices of drugs in this schedule. Medicines and devices listed in NLEM must be sold at the price fixed by NPPA while those in the non-scheduled list are allowed a maximum annual price hike of 10%. The changes to the list of essential medicines, according to industry experts, is expected to be made on the lines of the World Health Organization\u2019s essential list published earlier this month.
\n\u201cThe committee is looking into the drugs with the potential to improve outcomes with advanced therapies for cancer, cardiac ailments and diabetes. It will also look into antibiotics drugs and its resistance,” said a senior member of a pharma lobby group. The committee\u2019s intervention was also sought on \u201cthe proliferation of irrational combinations which has reached a dangerous magnitude”. “. \u201cWe are keen to see more medical devices on NLEM?” Said Malini Aisola, vo-convenor, All India Drugs Action Network (AIDAN). Non-government organisation AIDAN has suggested \u201cto evaluate several cancer drugs in the WHO list.<\/p>\n