The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for commercialization of health technologies for providing affordable healthcare solutions at the last mile. The MoU was signed for the Health Technology Accelerated Commercialization (H:TAC) Programme.  H:TAC will be implemented in partnership with the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Under the programme, FICCI and IC2 Institute will commercialize technologies developed by ICMR labs for the benefit of communities at large.

The program will leverage the expertise and technical knowledge of ICMR scientists who have developed much needed affordable healthcare technologies. The programme will ensure market access for the already developed technologies of ICMR labs and it would accelerate the availability of advanced diagnosis, treatment, prevention and healthcare delivery, benefiting the health and welfare of every Indian citizen.

H:TAC will also build capacities for ICMR scientists by providing them training on technology commercialization strategies and giving them an exposure on global best practices on innovation and commercialization. The program will take innovations from ICMR labs to not only Indian markets but global markets by providing hand-holding and business development support to ICMR scientists.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr. Sanjaya Baru, Secretary General, FICCI; Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Secretary, DHR & Director General, ICMR; Dr. Sanjay Madhav Mehendale, Additional Director General ICMR; Ritu Dhillon, Sr. Financial Advisor ICMR; Dr. Chandershekhar, Scientist G & Head- Innovation & Translational Research, Intellectual Property Rights, ICMR and other eminent experts of ICMR.