In an effort to give a booster shot to the pharma and medical devices industry, the Union government is all set to form a dedicated Ministry for Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar said.

The decision of a separate and full-fledged Ministry for Pharmaceuticals is with the PMO and is under the active consideration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the addition of medical devices, the sector is huge and this warrants a stand-alone ministry, he added.

The Centre has also pressed the Karnataka government to identity land in the outskirts of Bengaluru to set up the Pharma Med-tech Park for the production of medical devices, stated the Minister who was speaking at the India Pharma & India Medical Devices 2017 show in Bengaluru.

The southern part of country has two medtech parks one each at Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The Karnataka’s Pharma Med-tech Park can be set up near Electronics City in Bengaluru as the sector can have access to scientific, engineering and information technology expertise. The government will provide all the possible support and all that the state government needs is to identify the land, he said.

The central and state government are already facilitating ease of doing business through the Make in India programme for pharma and medical devices. The abolition of inverted duty structure for medical devices is a big step. The withdrawal of exemption duty for the promotion of bulk drug industry in the country, amendment of para 11 of DPCO 2013 to address the uneconomical ceiling price of IV fluids and the launch of fee system portal by ministry of health and family welfare to register pharma and the recent notification of medical devices are all a case in point.

In addition, the government has offered 100 percent FDI through automatic route for medical devices and pharma for Greenfield projects and 74 percent for pharma Brownfield. “All this has happened with our interactions with the industry. We will provide every assistance to encourage research, manufacture to bring down cost of production by 30 percent. This will create jobs and spur growth of the sector. This has happened with the interactions with industry by the government,” stated the Minister.

Various state governments should facilitate the Make in India programme. Since there is a large representation of global regulators in the meet, the industry should get the guidance to fine-tune itself to be better equipped for the future. India is known for its capability in pharma as it supplies to the global market 60 percent of vaccines, 60 percent of HIV drugs and 25 percent of UNICEF medicines, he said.

Delving on the issue of regulations, Kumar said, “With regards to the DPCO, the government assures transparency and fair play and stability. For this, government transparency is sacrosanct and fine tuning of tariffs are underway. We will work towards mutually agreeable solutions. The government wants to ensure that industry delivers quality which is viable and profitable for it. Based on the outcome of this event in Bengaluru, we will be meeting the industry to prepare the way forward,” he said.