The Union Government is planning to introduce a regulatory framework for the burgeoning market of medical devices in India to ensure the credibility of these products. A bill is being prepared by the Union Ministry of the Science and Technology in this direction.

The move comes against the backdrop of India emerging as a leading hub for manufacturing the medical devices with more and more global leaders setting eyes on the vast human resources and less costs.

Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal, while inaugurating a two-day international conference on medical electronics here on Friday, said the details of the proposed bill were being drafted.

He said the country would emerge as a world leader in the segment in the next ten years, given the huge resources available and the fast paced advancements. He wanted the industry to make use of the strides of Indian IT, specially in areas like embedded technology for furthering edge in the medical electronics market.

The medical electronics market spread into imaging, diagnostics and home medical segments is yet to evolve in the country, but is growing at nine per cent globally and had a total net worth of 90 million dollar in 2005.

Many of the world leaders like Phillips and Siemens who together commanded 33.5 per cent of the world market have their facilities in India and are in the process of augmenting the same. Siemens who has its over 1300 information technology experts working at their facilities related to medical devices in India was looking for more clinical partners and also discussions were going on with some users for trials, Dandapany Raghavan of the company said.

According to the latest projections, the demand for implantable medical devices would touch $89,600 million by 2012, from the estimated figures of $56,550 million of 2007. The Asia-Pacific region itself will be spending $9,200 million in 2007 and $14600 million by 2012 for medical devices.

Experts felt that the growth trend would continue and it would throw open vast potential for investors. The innovation occurring at intersection of cell biology, bio-pharma, electronic and mechanical devices, material science and protein chemistry are some of the positive factors for the growth.