The Government has recently announced that the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), India will henceforth handle the export related issues and promotional activities of the medical device and pharma machinery industries. Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) was handling the sectors until recently.

EEPC deals with export promotion of engineering goods, projects and services from India.

The information shared by the ministry of commerce was well received by the industry as experts feel that the exporters of medical devices and pharma machinery will get the right platform to present their issue and concerns before the government.

"Though Pharmexcil is a very competent forum, it had very little role to play in the medical device industry since it mainly deals with only the promotion of the pharma industry. This made us feel left out from the incremental and development scope, which will hopefully change now with the sector being migrated to EEPC. Now that a suitable forum has been established to represent our cause, we hope to see positive change in the business, with adequate focus being rendered to industry specific issues," stressed Mr D L Pandya, chief executive officer, Medical Plastics Data Service.

He further said that to get better exposure they have also demanded inclusion of the supply chain companies for medical devices and pharma machinery under the ambit of EEPC.