Coronary stents are small metal tubes placed in narrowed heart arteries to keep them open and help blood flow properly.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a gazette notification on Sunday, implementing the price cuts based on recommendations from a specialist advisory committee formed to review the pricing of stents used in heart procedures.
Under the revised list, the maximum retail prices (MRPs) of stents from medical device companies Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and Abbott have been adjusted to ensure affordability and prevent overcharging in hospitals.
For Medtronic, the Resolute Onyx stent, previously priced at Tk 0.14 million, has been capped at Tk 90,000, while Onyx Trucor has dropped to Tk 50,000 from Tk 72,500.
From Boston Scientific, the Promus Elite stent is now set at Tk 72,000 (down from Tk 79,000), Promus Premier at Tk 70,000 (from Tk 73,000), and both Synergy and Synergy Shield at Tk 90,000 (previously Tk 0.11 million and Tk 0.12 million, respectively). The price of Synergy XD has been cut to Tk 0.10 million from Tk 0.19 million.
For Abbott, Xience Prime is now priced at Tk 50,000, down from Tk 66,600, while Xience Xpedition remains unchanged at Tk 71,500. Both Xience Alpine and Xience Sierra, earlier priced above Tk 0.14 million have now been capped at Tk 90,000.
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