NEW DELHI: The ICMR has written to the states saying that with availability of testing kits no longer a problem, they can lower the price cap of Rs 4,500 fixed for Covid-19 diagnostic tests in private laboratories.The letter sent by ICMR director general Dr Balram Bhargava to state chief secretaries said, “Testing supplies are stabilising and due to the availability of a variety of testing materials and kits, including indigenous ones, the prices are becoming competitive and are undergoing reduction.”
“Considering these developments and the evolving prices of the testing kits, the earlier suggested upper ceiling of Rs 4,500 may not be applicable now. Hence, all state governments and UT administrations are advised to negotiate with private laboratories and fix up mutually agreeable prices for samples being sent by the government and also for private individuals desirous of testing by these labs,” Bhargava wrote.
At the beginning of the outbreak, there was a paucity of testing kits and India was heavily reliant on imported products, wrote Bhargava, adding that considering the cost of the imported kits, the ICMR had suggested price limit for a single test. In a letter dated March 17, the apex health research agency had suggested Rs 4,500 upper limit for private labs testing the coronavirus.
The development comes even as many private laboratories have maintained that with the Rs 4,500 upper ceiling, they have not been able to recover expenses. As on Tuesday, there are 182 private laboratories, apart from 430 government labs — where the tests are free — which are carrying out RTPCR tests. A patient rights group, meanwhile, said it would continue to appeal to make the test free for everyone.
“At the time of setting the price cap, the ICMR had claimed to have fixed it on the basis of the cost of doing testing in government labs and repeated this in an affidavit to the Supreme Court. This explanation was not believable given that costs of testing in government labs are estimated to be substantially lower than Rs 4,500,” said the All India Drug Action Network in a statement. “To this day, no rationale has been provided for setting such a high testing cap.”
The group alleged that private labs were incentivised to grow business and in many instances, did not conform to testing protocols and were able to flout the price cap by imposing arbitrary charges and bill patients in excess of even Rs 6,000.
It also alleged that while ICMR had previously shared that it was procuring RT-PCR test kits at prices ranging from Rs 740-1,150, no details were made available. “Centre should make public the prices, quantities and specifications for all Covid-19 test kits procured. In the current scenario, buyers are at a disadvantage and unable to discover the prices of various test kits on their own, which undermines competition,” said the statement.