India’s $464 million MedTech FDI Leap: Addressing pain points could further accelerate investments, says MTaI

New Delhi: India has witnessed a record-breaking surge of $464 million in foreign investments in MedTech in the first 3 quarters, the Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) said in a statement.

Chairman of MTaI, Pavan Choudary highlighted the pivotal role of foreign investments in India, emphasizing the potential to catalyze medical tourism, generate employment opportunities, and fortify the nation’s economic landscape.

Elaborating on the record FDI in MedTech, Choudary said, “The MedTech sector has seen a significant increase in FDI, already clocking 464 million dollars in the first three quarters of 2023. This shows the high potential of this sector and global investors’ recognition of the same. The government’s focus on increasing the ease of doing business in the country, the creation of a globally harmonized regulatory regime for the medical device sector, and initiatives like the National Medical Device Policy (NMDP) 2023 and PRIP scheme have been welcomed by the industry as reflected by the growing confidence of investors. Notably, this surge also indicates a shift in global dynamics, with Western nations, including Japan, increasingly favouring India as their preferred destination for friend-shoring activities.”

“MTaI member companies supply nearly 80% of the critical care medical devices and account for 70% of the overall medical device market share. Through its members’ investments in manufacturing, R&D and Healthcare worker training it has served the Indian patient while at the same time creating most of the market that exists in the country today. MTaI members are also responsible for bringing a large portion of the investment in this sector through FDI. MTaI had rightly estimated this upward FDI trend in 2022 and we believe MedTech has the potential to bring in even more investments in the coming years if some of the pending hurdles like pricing instability, multiplicity of authorities governing the sector, and high tariff rates are addressed by the government,” Choudary added.

The MedTech FDI inflow for the first quarter of this year (Jan-March 2023) was around $39M which rose to $301M in the second quarter (April-June 2023). For the third quarter (July- September 2023), the figures were $124M with a cumulative total inflow of $464M for the period of January-September 2023.