Indian MedTech Industry – A Long Way To Go
On the impact of Union Budget
It’s a holistic budget for a common man concentrated more on the vision for the growth and welfare of the nation. The announcement of an exemption from custom duty for raw material used to manufacture Artificial Kidney and Disposable Sterilized Dialyzers is a great news, thereby addressing a long-standing demand of the industry to correct the inverted duty structure, this is a welcome move for the industry. This is also an excellent news for Make in India. More such measures are needed to provide a fillip to Medical Devices.
On inadequate domestic demand for certain segments/product categories
In India, there has been a lack of access to quality health care, caused primarily by uneven distribution of healthcare infrastructure. Ayushman Bharat -PMJAY brings ample growth opportunities for MedTech industry in the country. We need more investment and better regulatory framework to support local manufacturers to ensure the availability of a steady and reliable supply of medical devices to a much larger group of patients than what the companies have become accustomed to.
On the absence of indigenous quality certification authority
The Government has taken positive steps keeping in mind patient safety and align with global regulation. BIS is in process of finalizing quality standards for 1200 Medical Devices and nearly 300 have already been completed.
On high cost of financing
This is a capital-intensive industry. In India, the bank interest rates are 10-12 percent, this is still higher in comparison to neighboring countries like China, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Lowering interest rates by 2-3 percent will be a big positive for the industry and make it more competitive as compared to our neighboring countries.
On GST rate for medical devices
This is breakthrough tax reform and one of the biggest major milestones for the country and its industries. Currently, medical devices such as IVD (in vitro diagnostic) attract GST of 18 percent, keeping such products under the GST slab of 12 percent will be a positive move as the forward-looking step towards making healthcare affordable to all.
The Indian medical devices industry has witnessed an unprecedented and consistent growth in past few years. Thus, to utilize the full potential of this sector, the Industry and government bodies need to work together. The National Medical Devices Promotional Council should be made operational as not a single meeting has happened for the council. The NMDPC will play a very important role in Make in India and Export promotion of Medical Devices.
Industry needs to be regulated by a single regulatory body preferably under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) as they have the domain expertise to regulate the industry. Multiple regulatory bodies are creating a lot of confusion & are slowing down investment in manufacturing.
