‘2,841% markup on IV sets’: Maharashtra FDA flags huge price gaps in medical products

New Delhi: An intravenous set being sold to a patient with a margin of 2,841 per cent; a nebuliser and oxygen mask at a margin of 1,687 per cent; a catheter at a margin of 955 per cent; and the humble 10 ml injection syringe with a margin of 747 per cent.

These are some of the findings of a market survey carried out by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration to assess how medical devices and consumables are being sold at overtly inflated prices to patients who cannot negotiate.

"The most expensive part of a hospital bill may never touch the hospital at all. A survey of hospital consumables in Maharashtra found an IV infusion set with a trade price of Rs 11.05 carrying a printed MRP of Rs 325; a markup of 2,841%. A syringe procured at Rs 6.75 carried an MRP of Rs 57.20. A catheter procured at Rs 29.41 carried an MRP of Rs 310," Tukaram Mundhe, FDA Commissioner, Maharashtra said in a social media post.

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An association of medical device manufacturers supported Mundhe, seeking a fair pricing policy. "Patients, who cannot bargain or choose devices, are left vulnerable to inflated maximum retail prices," said Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry.

A few other examples of such high margins include an IV cannula sold at a 1,785 per cent margin, a HEPA filter at 833 per cent, and a pack of disposable masks at 153 per cent.

"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," Mundhe said.

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…

— Tukaram Mundhe (@Tukaram_IndIAS) September 15, 2026

The Maharashtra FDA has written to the Department of Pharmaceuticals and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority red-flagging the huge gap between "trade procurement price and declared MRP".

"These are not elective purchases. Patients cannot compare prices, seek alternatives, or question a number printed on a box while receiving care and the MRP itself is often fixed upstream by manufacturers and distributors, disconnected from the trade price by a wide, unexplained margin," Mundhe said.

The result is a system where the patient party bearing the cost has the least information to evaluate it.

The regulatory gap, according to Mundhe, is structural. While scheduled medicines are capped under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, the same is not true for most medical devices and consumables whose prices remain largely unmonitored.

"This situation penalises both consumers and responsible suppliers, eroding trust and competitiveness. Patients deserve fair prices, not inflated margins, and India deserves a medical device ecosystem that is affordable, ethical, and globally competitive," Nath said.

Mundhe's social media post turned the spotlight once again on a malpractice that has persisted in Indian private hospitals and nursing homes for years. Nearly a decade ago, the NPPA probed the issue after several big hospitals gave their patients hugely inflated bills, but not much seems to have changed on the ground.