Recently, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has launched the Scheme for “Promotion of Medical Device Parks” to support the medical devices industry in line with Atmanirbhar Bharat with a financial outlay of Rs. 400 crore for the period FY 2020-2021 to FY 2024-2025.
Medical Device Industry
The medical device industry is a unique blend of engineering and medicine. It involves the creation of machines that are used to support life within the human body.
Medical devices are segregated into five major segments:
- Consumables & Disposables include needles and syringes, etc
- Diagnostic Imaging includes MRI, X-Ray, Ultrasounds, etc
- Dental Products includes dentures, braces, etc
- Orthopaedics & Prosthetics include knee implants, artificial joints
- Patient Aids include hearing aids and pacemakers, etc
Objectives
The programme intends to lower production costs, optimise resources, take advantage of economies of scale, and make standard testing and infrastructural facilities more accessible.
The easy access to standard testing and infrastructure facilities through the creation of world-class common infrastructure facilities via medical device parks.
Medical device parks provide easy access to standard testing and infrastructure facilities by establishing world-class common infrastructure facilities.
Reduce medical device production costs and improve medical device availability and affordability in the domestic market.
Financial Assistance
- The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs 400 crore and the tenure of the scheme is from FY 2020-2021 to FY 2024-2025.
- Financial assistance to a selected Medical Device Park would be 70% of the project cost of common infrastructure facilities.
- In the case of the North-Eastern States and the Hilly States, financial assistance would be 90% of the project cost.
- Maximum assistance under the scheme for one Medical Device Park would be limited to Rs. 100 crores.
- The Centre has granted in-principle approval for the parks in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Implementation
In total, proposals from 16 States/UTs were received under the scheme.
The selection of the States/UTs is based on the challenge method, which is reflected in the evaluation criteria of the scheme.
The ranking methodology for States/UTs is based on the parameters prescribed in the scheme guidelines such as utility charges, State policy incentives, total area of the park, land lease rate, connectivity of the park, ease of doing business ranking, availability of technical manpower etc.
Based on the evaluation, the proposals of the State Government of Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have been given “in-principle” approval under the scheme.
The scheme reflects the spirit of cooperative federalism where the Central Government and State Governments will partner to develop the Medial Device parks for better performance of the sector.
Benefits
The Medical Devices Parks to be developed under the scheme will provide common infrastructure facilities at one place.
It will create a robust ecosystem for the medical device manufacturing in the country and also reduce the manufacturing cost significantly.
Medical Devices Sector in India
- The current market size of the medical devices industry in India is estimated to be nearly $10 bn.
- The Medical device sector is projected to register a CAGR of almost 15% and is expected to reach ~$12 bn in 2021-22.
- India’s medical devices industry is poised for significant growth in the next five years with the market size expected to reach $50 bn by 2025.
- Medical devices sector in India is very small in size as compared to the rest of the manufacturing industry, though India is one of the top twenty markets for medical devices in the world and is the 4th largest market in Asia after Japan, China, and South Korea.
- India currently imports 80-90% of medical devices of the USD15 billion market.
- The US, Germany, China, Japan, and Singapore constitute the five largest exporters of high technology medical equipment to India.
Related Initiatives
- The Indian Certification of Medical Devices (ICMED) 13485 Plus system was introduced in June 2021 by the Quality Council of India (QCI) and the Association of Indian Manufacturers of Medical Devices (AiMeD) to verify the quality, safety, and efficacy of medical devices.
- The department of pharmaceuticals launched a PLI plan for domestic manufacturing of medical devices, with a total outlay of funds worth Rs.3,420 crore for the period FY21-FY28, to enhance domestic manufacturing of medical devices and attract substantial investments in India.
- From April 1, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced that medical equipment will be classified as “drugs” under Section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (D & CA), 1940.
- In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, Medical Device Parks have been established.
- Kerala created MedSpark, one of the country’s first medical device parks, in Thiruvananthapuram in 2020.
- Medical devices were designated as a sunrise sector by the Indian government in 2014 as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
With this we come to the end of this blog. We covered all the points related to the medical device parks scheme and importance of the medical device industry in India.
Stay tuned for more such blogs.
