The medical device industry has welcomed the draft National Medical Device Policy (NMDP) 2015 for the sector stating that it will certainly create favourable market conditions for their growth.

Experts also credited the Centre's move to set up an autonomous body 'National Medical Device Authority' (NMDA) for regulating and facilitating the demands of the sector under a single authority, i.e DoP as a strategic move to bring in semblance to the industry.
 
The industry feels that in all it is an ideal policy, however warned that for the industry to benefit from all the promised provisions the Centre needs to ensure proper and timely implementation of the same.

Expressing relief over this move, Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator of AIMED informed that finally it seems that the government is not treating the ‘Make in India’ campaign as a mere slogan, but is looking it as actual action based project.
 
“After going through the draft we feel that most of the points or provisions enlisted are favourably inclined to support the domestic industry's growth and are in line with AIMED’s recommendations.
All said and done, we need some fine-tuning for ensuring more clarity of direction and effectiveness. Most importantly, what industry waits is the implementation of this policy at the earliest so that we can finally start developing the domestic sector,” Nath added.
 
Keeping in mind the long-standing demands of the medical device industry, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) had released the draft NMDP 2015 on June 3. The objective of the much awaited policy is to strengthen the Make in India drive within the sector by reducing dependence on the imports, while simultaneously setting up strong base for medical devices, especially those having critical implication in terms of affordability and availability of the same to the patients.
 
One of the points that the association aims to raise in their representation is the on-going issue of price control. AIMED stressed that the Centre should focus on first implementing the already existing price control measures enlisted in the Consumers Act, rather than thinking about drafting new price control policy for the industry.
 
Nath stressed, “While price control is a very important aspect to deal with, to ensure consumer protection, steps should also be taken by the Centre to ensure that the measures taken by them do not scare away probable investors. As reinstated by the sector, we want the government to implement the provisions under the Consumers Act, like putting MRP on unit packs for both imports and domestic products. Also implementing 1 per cent tax based on MRP rather than the existing 6 per cent excise duty or the transaction value. Today manufacturers have a free reign to market the price of the products as per their wish by creating artificial inflation. The only feasible method to ensure consumer satisfaction and accessibility through affordable means is by capping the sector by implementing theses measures.”
 
At present, the Indian medical device industry which consist of around 800 manufacturers in the country is fragmented into small and medium enterprises, involved in manufacturing products such as disposables, medical supplies etc.