Citing examples of how ‘globalisation’ can enable a rapid response to life-threatening diseases like the current pandemic and save thousands of lives, Dr Dhirendra Kumar, senior microbiologist and research scientist, opines that the self-reliant rhetoric seems promising only if we can assure patients quality healthcare. Thus for global players to continue innovating in India, an investor-friendly and a flexible regulatory regime is required rather than the ones that discourage them such as the revised ‘public procurement order 2017’
Pandemics are a global story. We live in a world where the web of global connections has only grown deeper, and more intricate with time. If there is something that the recent outbreak has taught us, it’s that world is that when you live in a world thriving on globalisation, you need solutions that are global, and come with global partnerships.
Now, let us understand this in the Indian context. When the world economies closed borders around the world due to COVID-19 caused a major disruption in the healthcare supply chains, the Indian pharmaceutical industry rose to the occasion and supplied raw materials for medicines to meet healthcare needs worldwide, helping over 150 countries to fight the pandemic and encouraging domestic manufacturers to gear up production. From producing almost no ventilators domestically to manufacturing 60,000 in three months and 4.5 PPE lakh suits a day, their contribution has been applaudable.
Now, the other side of the story is India’s collaboration with the world to bridge its own healthcare gaps. Besides ramping up its domestic production and helping other countries, India also received help from its counterparts like the US delivered 200 ventilators to the country. Hence, the pandemic has thrown light on how ‘globalisation’ can enable a rapid response to life-threatening diseases saving thousands of lives.
Even as India progresses towards the self-reliant path, global collaborations are helping the country with its research and development (R&D). India’s expenditure on R&D stands at 0.6 to 0.7 per cent of the GDP from the last two decades, much lower than countries like South Korea, Israel and Japan. For instance, the UK is currently India’s second biggest research partner and it expected to be worth £400 million by 2021. In July, UK announced five new projects to tackle anti-microbial resistance in India. Taking the collaboration further, the two countries have also joined hands to create direct research and development links around COVID-19 manufacturing and testing facilities.
For global players to continue innovating in India, an investor-friendly and a flexible regulatory regime is required rather than the ones that discourage them such as the revised ‘public procurement order 2017’. It states that maximum preference for government tenders would be given to class-1 companies whose goods and services have 50 per cent or more local content and class-2 companies who have more than 20 per cent but less than 50 per cent of domestic content. Local content means the amount of value added in India which shall, unless otherwise prescribed by the Nodal Ministry, be the total value of item procured (excluding net domestic indirect taxes) minus the value of imported content in the item (including all customs duties) as a proportion of total value, in per cent.
A country that ranks 170 out of 180 countries in domestic general government health expenditure as a percentage of GDP, has a population of 1.3 billion people and imports 75 per cent of its medical devices, the self-reliant rhetoric seems promising only if we can assure patients quality healthcare. Take, for instance, after production of medical products by indigenous manufacturers such as ventilators saw major quality lapses. Dhaman-1 ventilators and the ones produced by two former employees of start-up, AgVa Healthcare were categorised as low cost but faulty and substandard. While it is laudable for India to promote its domestic industry and produce low cost medical devices such as ventilators, the country needs to give patient safety paramount importance.
As per reports, India is counted among the top 20 global medical devices market and is the fourth largest medical devices market in Asia after Japan, China and South Korea and the medical devices industry in India has the potential to grow at 28 per cent per annum to reach $ 50 billion by 2025. As it is impossible to achieve this figure overnight, there is a dire need to embrace global technologies that have helped the country for years to fight its disease burden. As things stand, there are certain challenges posed by the Indian device market for global manufacturers, and these include price control, multiple regulators, unstable policies, the presence of outdated laws and now, public procurement order 2017 will only worsen the situation.
To fight its communicable and non-communicable disease burden, it is critical for India to create a market that is open to foreign investments without any restrictions. A global handshake will allow innovations and latest medical technologies to reach people as geographical boundaries cannot decide what kind of product should be accessible to people. Innovative diagnostic methods, drugs and medical devices offer patients the hope of better treatment and quicker recovery.