evidence: Keeping the Independence Day promise of PM Narendra Modi to take measurable steps to harness healthcare costs, the government has announced to curb the price of knee implants in the country. With private hospitals reportedly indulging in unethical profiteering by charging unreasonable and extravagant rates and doing, the government has taken a decision to cap the retail price of knee implants. Under a special provision in the drug pricing law that allows the government to intervene in extraordinary circumstances in public interest, nearly 70 percent cost is slashed down keeping the knee implants in the range from Rs 54,000 to Rs 1.14 lakh which is lower than the current knee implant cost surgeries. Every year around 3 crore patients undergo knee implants surgery and with this move, over 3 crores arthritis patients in the country are expected to be benefitted with the estimated saving of 1500 crore annually. In February also, the government has taken steps to rein in the cost of coronary stents by slashing their maximum price by up to 85 per cent. This decision does not surface as a surprise as the NPPA had already released analytic data showing unethical trade margin on orthopedic knee implants. Earlier this month, in the analysis of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, it was found that manufacturers, distributors, and hospitals are illegally profiting up to 450% trade margins on these widely used knee implants. Against an earlier exorbitant MRP of Rs 1,58,324, now the knee implants surgery involving cobalt chromium will cost Rs 54,720. Similarly, knee implant cost involving special metals like oxidized zirconium and titanium have seen the decline of 70%, to 76,600 from Rs 2.49 lakh.