The leading associations and companies have welcomed the approval to the policy that outlines critical strategies such as regulatory simplification, infrastructure development, R&D, innovation facilitation and much more
Pavan Choudary, Chairman, Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) said, “We are encouraged by the spotlight turned on R&D. Despite having only 1.5% of the global medical device market, India has 8% of the MedTech R&D workforce. This is a fertile & proven area to focus on. In addition to this skilling and upskilling of healthcare workers augers well for patient care and manpower exports. Adjacent to this announcement we have also happily noted that the government is planning to open 157 nursing colleges. This is another well-chosen space as it is estimated that new technologies like AI which may make the desktop healthcare worker (even many doctors) redundant will not impact the nursing staff so adversely. So, this policy has a note of enduring prudence to it.
Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator of Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) while applauding the government said, “We congratulate the Government wholeheartedly for approving the much-needed, long awaited direction we had sought since the initial draft policy of June 2014 for a National Medical Devices Policy.”
Dr GSK Velu, Chairman, and MD of Trivitron Healthcare commented: “Great news for India’s medical device industry! The Union Cabinet has approved the National Medical Devices Policy 2023, fulfilling PM Narendra Modi’s vision of making India not just Atmanirbhar Bharat but also a leading international supplier of medical devices. This policy will drive accelerated growth, promote innovation, and create new jobs in the sector. With a patient-centric approach, we will ensure medical devices’ quality, safety, and efficacy while making them affordable and accessible to all. Let’s work towards achieving our goal of making India a global leader in medical device manufacturing, with more than 10-12% share over the next 25 years.”
Welcoming the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023, Runam Mehta, CEO, HealthCube said, “We are thrilled to hear about the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023. It is a commendable step towards promoting the medical devices sector in India, intending to capture 10-12% of the expanding global market within the next 25 years. The policy outlines critical strategies such as regulatory simplification, infrastructure development, R&D, innovation facilitation, investment attraction, human resource development, and brand positioning. I believe this will further boost the economy by creating an ecosystem for manufacturing medical devices, promoting innovation, providing support for training and capacity building, and encouraging domestic investments, transforming India into a medical device manufacturing and innovation hub.”
In his comments, Mudit Dandwate, CEO & Co-Founder of Dozee said, “Focused on reducing the country’s dependency on imports, the medical device policy will help the rapidly growing medical device industry flourish over the next 5 years, from its current size of $11 billion to $50 billion. Further, this policy will support India’s already expanding market by encouraging domestic production and fueling exports, helping the nation realize its dream of ‘Make in India, Make for World’. The integration of technology with healthcare requires holistic policies to be in place to enable the digital adoption of new-age innovative solutions such as remote patient monitoring, e-consultations, and telemedicine among others, and this policy helps foster this spirit of cooperation.”
