A hospital product bought for just Rs 11 can carry a printed MRP of Rs 325 — a price difference that Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Tukaram Mundhe has flagged as a concern for patients.
Mundhe, under whom the FDA is carrying out a major enforcement drive in the state, highlighted the issue in a social media post, pointing to the wide gap between the trade prices and MRPs of several medical consumables used in hospitals.
"The most expensive part of a hospital bill may never touch the hospital at all. A patient admitted for care has no way of knowing whether the price on a medical consumable reflects its actual cost or a markup fixed long before it ever reached the ward. That gap in information is, at its core, a public health issue," the IAS officer wrote.
IV set shows 2,841 per cent markup
Mundhe referred to findings from a survey of hospital consumables in Maharashtra. The figures showed substantial differences between the prices at which products were procured and their printed MRPs.
An IV infusion set with a trade price of Rs 11.05 was found to have an MRP of Rs 325, amounting to a markup of 2,841 per cent. A syringe purchased for Rs 6.75 carried an MRP of Rs 57.20, while a catheter bought for Rs 29.41 had an MRP of Rs 310.
"These are not elective purchases," Mundhe said, stressing that patients undergoing treatment often have little scope to compare prices or question the cost of medical consumables.
Regulatory gap in focus
Mundhe said MRPs are often fixed by manufacturers and distributors before products reach hospitals and may remain disconnected from their trade prices, creating what he called an “unexplained margin”.
“The result is a system where the party bearing the cost has the least information to evaluate it,” Mundhe said.
He also pointed to a difference in the regulatory framework. Scheduled medicines are subject to price ceilings under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, while most medical devices and consumables do not face similar controls.
Guidelines recommended
Mundhe said the findings have been reviewed and guidelines defining a permissible gap between trade procurement prices and declared MRPs have been recommended to the Department of Pharmaceuticals and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
He said such measures could address both the pricing disparity and the lack of information available to patients.