Dr Ajay Kumar, national president of the Indian Medical Association, has alleged that American companies are 'selling recycled prostheses' in India at cheaper prices. He said that the usage of a recycled prosthesis puts a patient at grave risk.
"It is shocking, but true, that US companies are selling recycled prostheses in India," he claimed in Patna on Wednesday.
According to him, American companies are selling knee and hip prostheses at a price of $4,000 (Rs 164,000) each in India, while in the United States the same prostheses cost $6,000 (Rs 246,000) each.
"Prostheses come cheap in India as US companies sell recycled ones", Kumar alleged while speaking to rediff.com in Patna. "To sell these recycled products, the companies were calling them 'reprocessed,'" Kumar claimed.
He also said that the cost of manufacturing of a prosthesis in the US is about $5,000 (Rs 205,000).
After a hue and cry was raised in the US over prostheses-recycling there, these companies have turned to India and other Asian countries, he alleged.