Drug price regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, NPPA, has increased price of stents by around 2 per cent after taking into account wholesale price index. <br/><br/>The new rate will be applicable from tomorrow. The price of bare metal stents will go up to 7,400 rupees from 7,260 rupees. Similarly, price of drug eluting stent has increased to 30,180 rupees from 29,600 rupees.<br/><br/>In February, the NPPA had brought stents under price control and capped ceiling price of coronary stents. The average price of these two kinds of stents used in cardiac treatment before the price control stood at 45,100 rupees and 1.21 lakh respectively. <br/><br/>NPPA has also fixed ceiling price of 46 drug formulations used for various ailments including hepatitis B, HIV and tuberculosis. Our correspondent reports that the government fixes the prices of essential drugs based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment, having sales of more than 1 per cent. <br/><br/>It regulates the prices of all other medicines, while companies are allowed to hike prices of such drugs by up to 10 per cent in a year.