India to Become the Healthcare Provider to the World through Atmanirbhar Bharat Aug 20, 2020

New Delhi: As a part of the India Healthcare Week – Redefining healthcare ecosystem, CII organized 12th MedTech Global Summit, Charting the MedTech route to Atmanirbhar Bharat to develop cohesive strategies, cross sectoral policy dialogue and strategic exchanges to promote Indian Medical Technology industry.

The Medical device sector has a crucial role to play in improving accessibility and affordability of healthcare especially with regard to the availability of precision devices stated Shri D V Sadananda Gowda , Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers during his inaugural address at the 12th MedTech Global Summit . We now must turn our attention to correct our high import dependence. Our pharmaceutical sector will become Atmanirbhar in a short period of 2-3 years, not only domestically but globally providing low cost and high-quality equipment and drugs. Our Product Linked Investment schemes will attract cumulative investment of INR 78,000 crore and generate 250,000 in employment, with Med tech attracting at least 40,000 crore and employing 140,000 new employees. The government is committed to providing low cost, affordable health care to every citizen through PMJAY and Ayushman Bharat with both schemes significantly reducing out of pocket expenditure for our citizens.

The medical device industry has labored and helped prepare indigenous products in our fight against COVID, with our production of ventilators proof of the success of Indian indignity stated Shri Piyush Goyal , Minister for Commerce and Industry and Railways. It showed to the world that India can be a trusted partner when it comes to global engagement and global trade. This is the time to leverage the tools of technology to recharge our health systems with the power of: Access, Awareness and Availability. The entire country’s healthcare needs will be upgraded, spending on healthcare will increase and India will ensure availability of good quality health care equipment and facilities for all Indians and the awareness campaign is being led by our Hon’ble Prime Minister. Along with being the pharmacy of the world, we shall also become the hospital for the world.

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee , Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry expressed his gratitude towards the Department of Pharmaceuticals and the phenomenal work undertaken through the recent PLI schemes launched for bulk drug parks and med tech parks. These are the progressive steps required for us to become Aatma Nirbhar. The Industry and Government need to work together to steer India to become global suppliers of medical Technology. There should be a greater streamlining of the regulatory process, a single national Med-Tech policy and a signal nodal body to govern and support the sector is imperative.

In this pandemic, all the healthcare ecosystem has come together, and have eliminated the need for importing stated Dr Naresh Trehan , Chairman, CII National Committee on Healthcare & Chairman & Managing Director, Medanta – The Medicity. In order to further move up the value chain, Med-Tech, the entire healthcare spectrum, Scientific Intuitions and Government need to be brought on to the same platform to allow for convergence. We need to make a plan to take to the government so that all stakeholders across can help collaborate and innovate.

India needs self-reliance but not just in medical device manufacturing. There is need to innovate and be self-reliant in technology through fundamental research and knowledge driven enterprise expressed Dr Renu Swarup Secretary Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Ministry of Science & Technology at the session on National Medical Device Sector. Emergency such as a pandemic provoke us and this provocation must lead to a SWOT analysis with a focus on need to collaborate, innovate and ultimately sustain the good effort. NBRIC (National Biomedical Resource Indigenisation Consortium) is a successful demand aggregation effort from DBT that has borne fruit. We need similar efforts in medtech, beyond Diagnostics, to focus on how resources can be mobilized to innovate.

The National Digital Health Mission has the potential to make the health system more evidence based transparent and efficient, it will also become an enabler for accelerating our progress towards universal health coverage and increase demand for medical technology expressed Mr Himanshu Baid , Chairman, CII Medical Technology Division & Managing Director, Polymedicure Ltd. There is a need for a national medical device policy, and a roadmap defining short, medium and long term goals for the sector and this should maintained at least for a period of 5 years allowing for greater stability and Ease of Doing Business within the sector. COVID has managed to teach us the importance of local manufacturing, local market and local supply chains, with Aatma Nirbhar opening new opportunities for the medical device sector.

Mr Sanjay Bhutani, Co-Chairman, CII Medical Technology Division & Managing Director, Bausch & Lomb Eyecare (I) Pvt. Ltd in his closing remarks stated the C OVID pandemic has brought a massive challenge to the industry. The industry with government support is poised to stand up and address this challenge head on. Nothing is more important than building our ability with agility to efficiently address our situation and use the lessons learned from the pandemic for the self-sufficiency of tomorrow.

The CII Healthcare Week which included the 12th Med Tech Summit, CII Ayurveda Conference and the Public Health Conference attracted over 1500 participants from India and more than 15 countries along with 60 + exhibitors and 8 State Governments over the 5 days which also included 25 Knowledge Session with more than 130 eminent speakers from India and Ivy league institutions like Princeton, Harvard Med School among others .

The CII India Healthcare Week was inaugurated by the Hon Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Mr Ashwini Choubey along with Dr Vinod Paul, Member Niti Aayog and Dr Randeep Guleria, Director AIIMS who is also leading the CII Public Health agenda including the TB Free Workplace Campaign.