Two weeks ago, India’s Union Cabinet, the top decision-making body in India, authorized a new medical device policy to increase its domestic device production. Currently, India only makes about 1% of the world’s medical devices and this new policy aims to increase that percentage to 10% in two decades. The new device policy will focus on increasing and improving India’s device manufacturing sector, device innovation, and quicker product approvals. To jump-start this new initiative, the Indian government will now dramatically increase its investment in domestic device companies, set up an incentive program for new device production, increase the number of new device innovation centers, and foster more training of Indian device executives.
India now imports about 85% of its devices from abroad, mostly from the US, EU, and China. This new policy hopes to reduce its medical device imports over time. With friction growing between the US and China, India hopes to compete with Chinese device manufacturers. Products targeted for local production include X-ray tubes, CT and MRI machines, and other more sophisticated devices.
Written by: Ames Gross – President and Founder, Pacific Bridge Medical (PBM)
Mr. Gross founded PBM in 1988 and has helped hundreds of medical companies with regulatory and business development issues in Asia. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the Asian medical markets. Mr. Gross has a BA degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.
Source used in the article: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1919984