MTaI urges govt to look at sub-categorization of devices

New Delhi: The medical technology industry has reached out to the government to look at sub-sectoring and sub-categorization of medical devices on the basis of engineering and manufacturing complexity involved in the production in order to maintain and bring more clarity of different dimensions.

According to MTaI, the significance of the medical technology industry is far from appreciation and despite its important role in the overall health sector of the country, the sector is under-prioritized.

Pavan Choudary, director general of the Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) said,"The healthcare sector rests on four pillars—hospitals, pharmaceutical industry, health insurance industry and the medical technology industry. The last of these is the least understood of all yet most significant for enhancing the quality of healthcare, and has direct implications for patient outcomes."

"The recently presented NITI Aayog action agenda recognizes the significance of global companies' presence for the domestic industry to compete with and grow. Import substitution as a focus of policies needs to be replaced with greater efforts directed towards ensuring global competitiveness through export promotion and meeting global quality standards," he added.

The industry has also demanded a phase-wise approach to the flagship Make in India project of the government so that devices could be made locally in the short run instead of the advanced technologies that require a more enhanced ecosystem and take years to develop in the country.

"The policies must factor in the existing gaps in the domestic manufacturing industry, and promote ease of doing business by way of reduced inter-organizational delays, enhanced start-up industrial finance, simplified regulations such as single-window clearance, and greater investment in infrastructure," said Sanjay Bhutani, director, MTaI.

MTaI said that a structured categorization is important to equip the sector with clarity in order to encourage the industry.

The industry argues that any 'access enhancing' (price control) mechanisms must be preceded by a careful impact analysis of the creation of geographical access barriers, quality of outcomes, reverse medical tourism, and decreased the incentive to innovate reports LiveMint.

"There is a need to look at medical devices holistically, and not through narrow prisms of singular initiatives and policies," said Urvashi Prasad, public policy specialist, office of vice chairman, NITI Aayog.