FICCI has suggested the government to adopt a four-pillar balanced approach while drafting the policy to assure the sustainable growth
FICCI hosted Department of Pharmaceuticals’ (DoP) day long workshop on Draft National Medical Device Policy (NMDP) which was attended by medical device stakeholders and senior government representatives. FICCI has suggested the government to adopt a four-pillar balanced approach while drafting the policy to assure the sustainable growth of this nascent industry.
FICCI strongly proposed that a careful evaluation based selection be made on manufacturing of certain targeted medical devices that can fit the current Indian manufacturing skills and manufacturing ecosystem, along with prevalence of disease that they address. It also highlighted that the Government should facilitate local manufacturing of them in a targeted manner towards the Make In India Programme. FICCI suggested that targeting all complex medical devices for Make In India will neither find success nor will make healthcare cost effective in the country.
The association suggested that the government should focus on building India’s global medical devices export competitiveness without seeking to curb imports. Importing low volumes of high quality and novel medical devices will facilitate market adoption, and scale the Indian market, which will eventually benefit domestic manufacturing to acquire both skill and scale. If this strategy is not adopted, India will have to direct far larger resources towards novel innovation, for which both funds and medical research capability is currently in short supply.
The association also observes that, in the absence of a cogent policy, currently all medical devices are treated the same from a policy standpoint. Since both technology and market adoption vastly varies from such low risk devices as a syringe, I.V. catheter or a blood bag, to high risk – high complexity devices as pacemakers and equipment such as MRI machines, FICCI urged the Government not be make a blanket un-segmented policy. The policy should acknowledge the sub-segmentation of medical devices into simple engineering and complex engineering, and apply distinct policy treatment, wherever applicable.
As the medical device is a fast innovation driven industry, it will be of utmost importance for the Government to promote an innovation ecosystem approach. This can be driven by keeping innovative devices outside price control, scaling currently abysmal number of innovation incubators such as School of Bio-design to several such institutes, and launching a fiscal incentive mechanism for attracting top global med-tech innovators to India.
The workshop witnessed DoP leading the dialog and discussion under the Chairmanship of Jai Priye Prakash, Secretary, DoP. FICCI applauds the leadership initiative of DoP in organising this successful workshop.
Welcoming the initiative, Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) invites and enengages the important stakeholders during the first Conference on National Medical Device Policy (NMDP). MTaI hopes that the NMDP will facilitate the development and manufacturing of those products which can be made in India, the import of those products which cannot be made in the country at a cost which is not prohibitive, continue to fuel FDI and inflow of technology, lead to increased R&D investment and activity, Healthcare Worker (HCW) training, increased patient access to quality healthcare and demand generation.
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