India, Japan to accelerate collaboration for medical products through Joint Regulators

New Delhi : The first ever a two-day joint symposium between India and Japan to facilitate regulatory collaboration for medical products was inaugurated by Ambassador of Japan Kenji Hiramatsu and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Additional Secretary K.B. Agarwal on May 18, where participants from both countries agreed to collaborate more comprehensively in future.

Director General of Health Services, MOH&FW, Dr. Jagdish Prasad, Joint Secretary, MoH&FW, K.L. Sharma, Drug Controller General (India), CDSCO, Dr. G N Singh, Executive Director of Japanese Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency Dr. Kazuhiro Shigetoh also participated in the symposium.

The two-day symposium was organised on May 18-19.

As India is scaling up its healthcare systems and in parallel streamlining the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Regulatory guidelines, it is envisaged that harmonisation of regulatory frameworks will benefit trade exchange and technology exchange for larger good.

Japan is the third largest medical devices manufacturer and consumer in the world. It is a pioneer for development of several pharmaceutical and medical devices.

Japan and India are strong cultural and trade partners, with Japan being the fourth largest FDI contributor to India.

Under the agreement held in 2015 between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are likely to be doubled by 2019.

During the two-day Symposium, participants from both countries agreed to collaborate more comprehensively in future. The Japanese side has extended support to the Indian government for Indian Regulators' Skill enhancement through their Asia Training Centre.

"This is a great start. We have achieved the much-needed momentum for our regulators to meet and collaborate. From this point onwards, we collectively commit ourselves to greater partnership and bi-lateral relationship," said Probir Das, Chairman, FICCI Medical Devices Forum.

The Symposium will now become a regular event, with each side hosting it once a year. Next year, the symposium will be hosted in Japan.