Task force on med devices to give recommendations in 2 months

A task force set up by Government to address the key issues before the medical devices sector will give its recommendations in about two months, a top government official said today.
"We have formed a task force which is a month old and are discussing issues which are affecting the growth of the sector and the recommendations will be coming in two months time," Pharmaceuticals Secretary V K Subburaj told reporters.
It is working on the modalities for implementation of recommendations so that a conducive atmosphere for the sector is created, he added.
Subburaj was speaking on the sidelines of 'Indian Medical Device Summit 2014' organised by the industry body Assocham.

At present most of the devices are imported but "we are determined to provide a conducive atmosphere to ensure that our medical devices sector grows," Subburaj said.
When asked about the membership composition of the task force he said it has representatives from the department of pharmaceuticals, health and family welfare ministry, commerce ministry, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and associations in the sector.

"We've also earmarked a National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) at Ahmedabad, a centre which will specialise in medical devices sector.There we will establish a medical devices research and development centre also," Subburaj said.

The medical devices sector has been demanding that medical devices be treated separately from drugs and have a separate regulatory mechanism.
The industry also says that to boost the domestic manufacturing the import duty for the medical devices should be rationalised as they are very low at present.
Echoing the sentiment of the sector, Subburaj said: "We need to rationalise the tax structure to see that our country develops in this sector.
Currently the overall medical equipment industry in India is USD five billion which is very small percentage of the global industry.