A move to bring in a system of price control on medical devices is on cards. India is currently using a large number of medical devices for various health problems and many of them are imported while some are being manufactured in the country. And prices of many of these products are not considered to be justified considering their quality parameters.

A committee was thus, set up by the Union ministry of chemicals and fertilisers some time back to explore the possibility of price negotiations of medical devices and patented drugs. This committee is likely to hold a meeting on January 24, to arrive at a pricing mechanism for imported medical devices.

The seven member committee chaired by the deputy secretary for pharmaceutical industry, ministry of chemicals and fertilisers, has earlier decided to initiate talks with the representatives of medical devices industry and further actions will be carried out with the meeting on 24th, official sources said.

"Right now, the committee is expecting to hold a meeting on January 24. As per the agenda, the committee will be going to discuss the pricing of imported and patented medical devices," said Paresh Johri, deputy secretary, ministry of chemicals and fertilisers.

The medical devices market in the country, which is currently reported as around US$ 2 bn of size, is expected to grow at a rate of 15 to 20 per cent to reach a market size of about US$ 5 bn by the end of 2012, according to a FICCI-Ernst & Young study in 2007. Imports of ophthalmic equipments, orthopaedic and plastic surgery equipments are growing fast and the major suppliers of the high end products are overseas companies.

Almost 30 foreign players, has received import clearance for their products in India in 2007. The increasing market need and the in-flow of medical devices from overseas countries has raised the concern of government over the quality, usage and price of the devices, said a member of the committee.

The committee has also invited views from general public and other stakeholders for consideration before finalisation of its recommendations and has requested the views to be submitted before February 10, 2008.

However, sources close to the development points out that the committee, which has been revised in December 2007, is yet to achieve momentum. The committee meeting on December 12th was not attended by some of the seven members and the discussions were not upto expectations, revealed sources.