The fourth of a series of six virtual workshops on current Good Manufacturing Practices to support the Indian pharmaceutical / Medical Devices industry’s vision of providing world-class quality medical products was inaugurated by Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. 

The initiative is the result of an active collaboration between the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, the World Health Organization (WHO), JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research at Mysuru (JSS AHER), AMTZ and the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

Dr Swarup said, “This initiative of providing the requirements of Global standards meets the critical need of enabling further up-gradation of in vitro diagnostics and medical devices sector for achieving global standards of quality. This will have a far-reaching positive impact. It reiterates our commitment to quality medical products.” 

Welcoming the capacity-strengthening workshops, Dr VG Somani, Drug Controller General of India, said, “We are committed to the highest regulatory standards to ensure quality, safety and efficacy of medical products. This workshop conducted by a team from WHO PQ IVD Assessment team would support Indian medical devices units to upgrade their quality culture to global standards.” 

“The virtual workshop for medical devices units is a key step in that direction, and we are delighted to partner in this path-breaking programme,” said Sudarshan Jain, Secretary-General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance. 

National and international experts, including from WHO (HQ, Regional Office for South-East Asia, Country Office for India) and leading industry voices came together to design a need-based workshop programme. 

Dr Jitendra Sharma, Managing Director & CEO, Andhra Pradesh Med Tech Zone (AMTZ) said that the workshop would propel the Indian medical devices industries to higher global standards.

Shirish Belapure, Senior Technical Advisor, at Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, said, “IPA Quality forum has one prime objective of upgrading the quality of Indian pharmaceuticals and medical devices industries and this workshop is supporting the realisation of the same.”

Dr Anup Anvikar, Director, National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), Veena Kohli, President, Association of Diagnostics Manufacturers of India (ADMI) and Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED) also graced the occasion.