The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, on 14 December 2018, announced the setting up of a National Medical Devices Promotion Council (“Council”). Though the medical devices industry has been growing steadily, it is primarily import driven. Thus, the setting up of the Council would perhaps spur domestic manufacture in the sector.
This is an announcement and we look forward to information / notification when the Council is set up and the processes announced are implemented.
The Council would be headed by the Secretary of the DIPP. Further, it would have representatives from the health care industry and quality control institutions. Institutions such as Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, Visakhapatnam would provide technical support to the Council.
The Council will have the following objectives:
- Act as a facilitation, promotion and developmental body for the Indian medical device industry.
- Hold periodic seminars, workshops to garner views of the industry and understand the best global practices in the sector.
- Simplify the approval processes for the medical device industry.
- Enable the entry of emerging interventions and support certificates for manufacturers to reach levels of global trade norms and facilitate India to become an export driven market.
- Support the dissemination and documentation of international norms and standards for medical devices by capturing the best practices in the global industry.
- Drive a robust and dynamic Preferential Market Access (PMA) policy by identifying the strengths of the domestic manufactures and discouraging unfair trade practices in imports.
- Undertake validation of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) and such other entities within MDI sector which would add value to the industry strengths in manufacturing to gain foothold for new entrants.
- Make recommendations to government based on industry feedback and global practices.
Available at: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=186385
