Medical devices a sunrise sector, to be US$ 50 bn by 2025: DoP Secretary

New Delhi: The 6th Edition of ‘India Pharma & India Medical Device 2021′ that is all set to be held on 25-26 Feb and 1-2 March 2021 will showcase India’s might in the pharmaceuticals and medical device sectors.

Speaking at the curtain raiser event on 8th February, Ms S Aparna, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals pointed out that in spite of various challenges during the pandemic year, the pharma and medical device sector has shown positive growth. “To further provide business linkages and remove bottlenecks in the growth of the sector this edition of the event will be organized virtually and participants from across the globe will participate,” she mentioned.

DoP Secretary mentioned that her Department has been working continuously to ensure a stable long-term policy environment and reduce the compliance burden on the Industry. “The efforts are supported with the help of other Ministries, such as the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change which recently released an amendment letter, clubbing APIs and intermediates as a single category instead of individual products – a change warmly welcomed by the industry.”

“The Department is also working on formulating other dedicated policies to give an impetus to investments in both Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices sector in India, for both manufacturing and R&D,” said S Aparna.

While talking to media, Secretary said the Government has also formulated several mechanisms to support the investments into the sector, including the setting up of the “Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) and Project Development Cells (PDCs) across the Ministries/Departments of Government of India for attracting investments into the country. “The ‘Project Development Cells’ (PDC) expedite investments through focussed coordination between the Central Government and State Governments, supporting the pipeline of investible projects in India. A PDC has also been created in the DoP, supporting faster issue resolution and extensive outreach activities with the collaboration of Invest India. We have also set up a dedicated Pharma Bureau which acts as a single point interface of the Department with Industry. It facilitates investments in partnership with Invest India and also acts as a think tank for policy research.”

S Aparna a 1988-batch IAS officer of Gujrat cadre, assumed charge as Secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals in October 2020. She has been the Executive Director of World Bank, representing the Constituency of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In 2019, she was given a proforma promotion as Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) while she was on deputation in Washington DC as Executive Director, World Bank. She has also served as the Principal Secretary to the then Gujarat CM.