The Indian Government this week rejected Boston Scientific‘s (NYSE:BSX) request to increase a cap on the price it can charge for its high-end Synergy stent in the region.
The Marlborough, Mass.-based company said that price caps imposed in February could lead to losses of at least $7 million for the year.
Boston Scientific had requested that the price cap be raised from approximately $450 (INR ₹29,600) to $1,160 (INR ₹48,877), arguing that the Indian government had ignored the “exhaustive and persuasive” data which showed Synergy’s superiority, which had not been previously reported.
Before the price cap was set, Boston Scientific charged $3,000 (INR ₹195,000) for the Synergy stent in the region.
A panel from India’s federal drug pricing authority rejected the request on Monday saying that there was “no major innovation” involved in the stent to warrant the higher price. A final decision will be taken by the federal health ministry.
Boston Scientific said it will “continue to engage in a constructive dialogue with the government on the availability of our next generation stents.”
The price cap has caused other major players in medtech to seek to withdraw their high-end stents from the market.
Late last month, the NPPA rejected applications from Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Abbott (NYSE:ABT) to withdraw coronary stents from the region and asked the companies to maintain their supplies of the stents, according to a DNAIndia report.
Earlier in April, Medtronic and Abbott said they would look to withdraw select high-value stents from the Indian market in light of cost caps imposed by the NPPA.
Medtronic filed to remove its Resolute Onyx stent from the market, while Abbott filed to remove both its Absorb and Alpine stents.
Material from Reuters was used in this report.