Ludhiana, December 23, 2023: The Management of Acute Coronary Events (MACE) Registry, an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) –funded project (yet to be published) has shown that the percentage of Heart Attack Patients reaching hospital within 1 hour of symptom onset were 21.7%, within 2 hours of symptoms onset were 38.5% and within 4 hours of symptom onset were 57.2%.

This has been revealed by the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prof Satya Pal Singh Baghel in reply to a question about patient's treatment in golden hour asked by MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora in the recently concluded winter session of Rajya Sabha. Arora had asked whether it is a fact that only around 20 per cent of heart patients get treatment in so-called golden hour; and the steps government is taking to increase this number and make life saving clot buster drugs cheap.

The Minister further mentioned in his reply that ST-Elevated Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) was included in National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non- Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD) on 22nd November 2022. Under the program, thrombolytic services are provided at Cardiac Care Unit (CCU)/ICU with referral to higher health facilities. Cardiovascular disease patients are getting treatment at various health facilities in the health care delivery system including District Hospitals, Medical Colleges, Central Institutes like AIIMS, Central Government hospitals. The treatment in Government Hospitals is either free or highly subsidized for the poor and needy.

Further, the Minister mentioned that National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) under the aegis of Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) fixes the ceiling price of scheduled medicines specified in the first schedule of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 (DPCO, 2013). The National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) as notified by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHF&W) is adopted as the basis for determining essentiality and is incorporated in the First Schedule of DPCO, 2013, which constitutes the list of scheduled medicines.

Adding, the Minister mentioned that all manufacturers of scheduled medicines have to sell their products within the ceiling price (plus applicable Goods and Service Tax) fixed by the NPPA. Further, DPCO, 2013 allows an annual price rise for scheduled formulations based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI). The formulations under Schedule I of DPCO, 2013 are mentioned according to their therapeutic category. Life-saving clot buster drugs are not specifically mentioned in the NLEM.

The Minister also mentioned that however, there is a separate therapeutic category for Cardiovascular Medicines. NPPA has fixed ceiling price for 58 formulations under NLEM 2022 and 7 formulations under NLEM 2015 as on December 15, 2023 covered under Cardiovascular Medicines category. Further, in 2014, NPPA capped the MRP of 106 non-scheduled formulations under Para 19 of DPCO 2013 in public interest which includes 84 cardiovascular drugs. The details of prices fixed by NPPA are available on the website of NPPA.