allworld.mediaNews from all over the world
Discrepancy Found Between Procurement and Retail Drug Prices in Karnataka Hospitals; Authorities Appeal to Center
Read more
The times of India
timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Discrepancy Found Between Procurement and Retail Drug Prices in Karnataka Hospitals; Authorities Appeal to Center

Concerns have arisen in the state of Karnataka regarding the pricing of critically important medications, including oncology drugs, expensive injectable agents, implants, and surgical consumables, as well as diagnostic consumables and disposable devices.

The Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration of Karnataka, K. Srinivasa, demanded urgent regulatory intervention on pricing issues. This pertains to medicines, medical devices, and consumables supplied to hospitals at reduced institutional prices but subsequently charged to inpatients at the printed maximum retail price (MRP) or very close to it.

Similar stories

Hospital consumables can be sold with a markup of up to 2841%
Read more
timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Hospital consumables can be sold with a markup of up to 2841%

The markup on medical devices can reach hundreds or even thousands of percent, which significantly increases patient bills for hospitalization. This applies even to the most inconspicuous components of hospital bills—the cost of frequently used consumables during treatment.

For example, an intravenous infusion set, which costs 11 rupees on the wholesale market, has a retail price (MRP) of 325 rupees. Similarly, a disposable syringe injection, available for less than 7 rupees, is sold for about 60 rupees.

The price gap becomes even more apparent in the case of expensive devices such as pacemakers, heart valves, and intraocular lenses, where the final retail price can be 10 to 30 times higher than the import price including delivery.

Popular