New Delhi: Health activists campaigning for affordable treatment on Wednesday urged the Narendra Modi government to resist "pressure" from foreign medical device makers and expand price caps to new classes of medical devices.
The All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), a consortium of non-government activists’ groups, said it was concerned that a body of foreign medical device manufacturers had petitioned the US government seeking suspension or withdrawal of certain trade benefits to India.
The US-based Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) had last week filed a petition with the US Trade Representative requesting India’s benefits be suspended or withdrawn in light of India’s "failure to provide equitable and reasonable access to its market for medical devices".
The AdvaMed petition follows the Modi government’s decisions earlier this year to impose price caps, first on coronary stents and then on knee implants, slashing prices by as much as 85 per cent and 70 per cent. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had imposed the price caps, rejecting suggestions from AdvaMed and associations of other foreign device manufacturers for differential price controls taking into account differences in features of devices.
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