NEW DELHI: Heart patients who require coronary stents stand to get an average benefit of close to `1lakh after the country’s drug pricing authority on Tuesday fixed a cap on stent prices, chemicals and fertilisers minister Ananth Kumar has said.The move, which has upset domestic and multinational stent makers alike, would encourage companies to make in India to cut costs, the minister said. Earlier in the day, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) slashed prices of coronary stents by over 75%, capping the ceiling prices of drug eluting stents (DES) and bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) at Rs 29,600, and bare metal stents (BMS) atRs 7,260. Including VAT, these stents are expected to cost Rs 31,080 and Rs 7,623, respectively.Acoronary stent is a wire mesh tube used to clear blockages in the arteries and prevent heart attacks. The ceiling prices notified by the body are applicable to manufacturers, distributors and hospitals billing patients for stents effective February 14, according to NPPA’s notification. It has also made it mandatory for hospitals to bill cardiac stents separately from the procedure package billed to patients.The regulator claimed that “huge” and “unethical” markups were charged on the devices throughout the supply chain.The minister claimed these stents “were being sold with a 400% profit margin”. Over 90% of stents implanted in India are DES, sold at an average price of Rs 1.21 lakh, while BMS are sold at an average price of Rs 45,095, he said. Kumar claimed that the price caps have been fixed after taking into account manufacturing, R&D and marketing costs as well as “ethical” profit.Stent manufacturers, however, said the move will kill the industry by discouraging companies to innovate and bring in new technologies into this space.