India has come a long way by showing its capabilities & its manufactures have come a long way by showing their capacity, the capability to sustain all the odds & deliver the services. The government support through PLI Schemes has been a boon and that’s what the government wants, deliberated Dr VG Somani, Drugs Controller General of India, CDSCO in Webinar series on Self Sufficiency (Atmanirbhar Bharat) in Medical Technology in Series I Webinar on Development of National Medical Technology Roadmap organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) on December 22, 2020.

Dr VG Somani mentioned that there is a need to look at quality, affordability, and access, and service delivery while developing medical products from a pricing and regulatory perspective. We need to keep on monitoring it so that it becomes a reliable solution for the consumer at large.

Talking about the regulations, “babysteps to be taken for harmonizing the international regulatory standards for medical devices is the way forward”. We need to consider that it doesn’t disrupt the actual manufacturing, market, and consumer cycle. We should have quality throughout the life cycle of the product as best as possible with the world", he said.

Dr Jitender Sharma, MD & CEO, AMTZ said that there is a need to control the import and export HS codes; PLI Scheme for next 3 years; consolidation of R&D funding on medical technologies; free fall of prices for social maximisation and set minimum prices of products for leveraging the business.  

Pradeep Multani, Sr Vice President, PHDCCI while giving an industry perspective, talked about the increase in the market size share and domestic players which are operating in the consumables segment and catering to local consumption with limited exports.

Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMED stated that Covid exposed India’s soft under belly of excessive import dependence of medical devices & the need for country to go into lockdown to prepare ammunition to fight Covid and build manufacturing & healthcare delivery infrastructure on war footing with close coordinated unprecedented Inter Ministry support.