Recently, India’s Union Cabinet approved the National Medical Devices (NMD) Policy, 2023. The policy offers a stimulus plan for the rapid advancement of the country’s medical devices sector. This article explores the features, significance, current scenario, challenges, and the way forward for India’s medical device sector, as structured by NMD Policy 2023.
Key Features of the National Medical Devices Policy 2023
The NMD Policy 2023 presents a number of crucial characteristics in order to streamline India’s medical devices sector:
- Regulatory Streamlining: A ‘Single Window Clearance System’ will be initiated for easy licensing of medical devices. Entities like MeitY and DAHD will be involved in this system.
- Enabling Infrastructure: World-class medical device parks will be established near economic zones. This will be under the National Industrial Corridor Program and proposed National Logistics Policy 2021.
- Facilitating R&D and Innovation: The policy promotes research and development to complement the proposed National Policy on R&D and Innovation in the Pharma-MedTech sector.
- Attracting Investments: The policy encourages private investments and Public-Private Partnerships.
- Human Resources Development: The policy plans to provide skilling programs through the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
- Brand Positioning and Awareness Creation: A dedicated Export Promotion Council will be created for handling market access issues.
Significance of the NMD Policy
The NMD Policy 2023 aims to transform the Indian medical devices industry into a competitive, innovative sector that caters to the healthcare needs of India and other countries. By positioning India’s medical devices industry on an accelerated growth path, the policy aims to achieve a 10-12% share in the expanding global market over the next 25 years.
Indian Medical Device Sector: Current Scenario
India’s medical devices sector is presently the 4th largest Asian medical devices market and among the top 20 globally. The government has initiated schemes like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for promoting domestic manufacturing of Medical Devices. Despite being a sunrise sector, India’s current market share in the medical device category is merely 1.5% of the global space.
Challenges Confronting the Indian Medical Device Sector
The medical device sector in India faces numerous challenges. These primarily include inconsistent regulations, limited research and development, high dependency on imports, and limited access to capital. The complex regulatory environment poses significant difficulties for manufacturers. Furthermore, the adoption of state-of-the-art technologies remains limited in the sector. The high reliance on imports escalates the cost of healthcare while limited access to funding discourages start-ups.
The Path Ahead
For a sustainable evolution of the medical device sector, policymakers in India must strategize an action plan that curtails the dependency on medical technology imports. Medical device companies should focus on developing India as a manufacturing hub for domestic and international markets and facilitate innovation in the sector.
The new policy is expected to help boost the Medical Devices Sector from the present USD 11 Bn to USD 50 Bn by 2030. This will put India on the path to becoming one of the top five global manufacturing hubs in this sector, reducing its import dependence to about 30%.
