Secretary DoP expounds concept of ‘Proximate Advantage’ at MTaI meeting

Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) recently organized a high–level meeting with government stakeholders, and MediTech industry captains at The Claridges, New Delhi. The event was graced by Dr Arunish Chawla, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), and Aseem Sahu, Deputy Drugs Controller, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).

The event revolved around India’s prospects and obstacles within the MediTech domain including tariff and non-tariff barriers, price control, procurement challenges, the need for standard harmonization, and streamlining the regulatory landscape. Alongside this, various strategic inputs also were discussed aiming to encourage investments in India’s healthcare sector.

Speaking during the event, Pavan Choudary, Chairman, MTaI stated, “The government and its offices like the Department of Pharmaceuticals, CDSCO deserve our appreciation for creating policies that have enabled the upward growth trajectory of India’s medical device sector in recent years. The last marker of this ascent is the record breaking FDI in the sector in 2023. The continued learning of the intricacies of this sector will be key to achieving the goal of making India a MediTech hub”.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Arunish Chawla, Secretary, DoP said, “Most MediTech hubs around the world specialize in a few segments that they robustly export. Therefore, for the growth of the Meditech sector in India, we must initially focus on areas where the country already has some underlying strengths, like Medical Textiles, Consumables, Software, Artificial Intelligence, etc. Growth budding from areas close to our strengths is proximate growth. And this I call the ‘Proximate Advantage’ which we should leverage to begin with.”

Dr Arunish Chawla added, “This sector- MediTech, as the name suggests is very complex, as all the sciences fathomable converge here like Medical Chemistry, Biotechnology, and various streams of Engineering. Looking at its intricacies, we all should be open to learning from each other. While crafting policies for this niche sector, one needs to understand that every medical device has various sub-groups and every sub-group has different components, and each of these components that is used is made from different raw materials that are available in different geographies.”

“To take a comprehensive view, we have been collating the metadata and will organize the first of its kind, think tank event for the MediTech sector called the ‘India MediStack’ in Delhi NCR. This will be a very important congregation of MediTech experts which will raise the caliber of dialogue in this space.”

MTaI’s Fraternity Meeting was attended by industry stalwarts including more than 20 CEOs of leading MediTech companies, where government officials and industry came together, turning the spotlight on a unified way forward in regulations and policies to take the sector to the next level.
MB Bureau