Abbott (NYSE:ABT) is still looking to pull its Xience Alpine drug-eluting stent from the Indian marketplace after the country’s regulatory body set significant price caps on stents earlier this year, according to an Indian Economic Times report.
The company reportedly approached India’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority looking to withdraw the Xience stent yet again due to caps, along with its Absorb, which it announced it was pulling from the global marketplace late last week.
“We applied for Alpine withdrawal back in April and the application was rejected. We continue to remain engaged with the NPPA to determine the way forward for Alpine in India,” an Abbott spokesperson told ET, according to the report.
The NPPA rejected the previous application from Abbott to withdraw its stents, as well as an application from Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), which was also looking to pull its high-value stents from the Indian market in light of the price caps.
The companies were ordered to maintain their supply of the stents for 6 months – a period which ended in August, according to the Economic Times.
If the new application is approved by the NPPA, it could pave the way for other major companies to pull their advanced stents from the market, according to the report.
Earlier this year, Abbott, Medtronic and Boston Scientific said they planned to tell Indian officials that any further price control measures would risk future investments and make them less likely to introduce new products to the region.
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