The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has expressed its displeasure over the Union health ministry's recent action in which the ministry has included coronary stents in the National List of Essential Medicine (NLEM) with immediate effect. The industry body feels that the ministry's decision will further weaken the industry sentiment as the Indian medical device industry braces up for new opportunities, it remains tied up in the restrictive business environment.

Pharmaceutical formulations and medical devices are two inherently different sectors and cannot be dealt with by the same formula. “Unilateral and unsuitable price controls on stents and medical devices will adversely affect the usage of innovative and high quality products in India and thus reduce the levels of patient outcomes. This will have an unfavourable impact on the Make in India intentions and FDI inflow in the sector,” said Probir Das, chairman FICCI Medical Device Forum.

With the recent notification, the access to latest technologies to patients in India is likely to be prohibited and will hugely impact both medical tourism which thrives on availability of latest medical technology, and clinical outcome for Indian patients.  Attracting global investments for realizing Make in India would need a mature handling of policy decisions for this sector, to keep investor sentiment high and a positive outlook on investing in India for this sector, the industry feels.

“Innovation and incremental improvement is the foundation of the medical devices sector that has to regularly invest in research and development for upgrading medical technology for the benefit of the patients. Price controls create disincentive for manufacturers to bring new technology to market,”Das added.

In no market around the world has access to high quality medical treatment improved without a combination of strong reimbursement mechanism and high quality medical technology adoption. Price control does not improve access.

It is time for the government, insurers, manufacturers, and providers to embrace common objectives and to acknowledge and fully support the crucial role of medical technology assessment in the enhancement of the quality of healthcare.