India-US Tensions Grow In Device Pricing Cap Controversy

India's price capping for medical devices is threatening to snowball into a trade tit-for-tat with the US. The US Trade Representative is intervening on the matter at the behest of industry. While a middle path is probably still possible, pro-health groups in India have decried the “reprehensible” US move, and others are suggesting a tax on US luxury goods should the issue escalate.

Tensions over India' regulatory actions this year capping prices of first stents and then knee implants has spilled over to trade-war territory after the US medical device lobby group AdvaMed sought the intervention of the US Trade Representative.

AdvaMed recently petitioned the USTR to suspend or withdraw benefits to India under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) in...