Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that it has asked the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to regulate high prices of cardiac stents.

"It has come to FDA's notice that demand for cardiac stents has increased considerably and also the fact that cardiac stents are being exorbitantly priced," said Mr Harshadeep Kamble, FDA commissioner, in a statement.

"There were complaints from the public and also from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) regarding overpricing and overcharging of cardiac stents to needy patients," said the senior IAS official.

Following the complaints, the FDA's Vigilance Branch conducted a detailed probe against a major importing company dealing in cardiac stents.

The investigation has revealed that the MRP itself is exaggerated and to the tune of more than 300 to 700 percent of the actual cost of importing cardiac stents by the importing company.

"The profit margin earned by the importing company with respect to its distributors on an average is about 120 percent and the average profit margin earned by distributors to the hospital is about 125 percent," said Mr Kamble.