New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) There is a need for transparent government tendering, procurement and payment systems among other measures, to help scale up the domestic medical technology sector which has export potential of USD 100 billion by 2047, according to FICCI Medical Device Committee Chair Vishwaprasad Alva.
Speaking at the 7th edition of India Pharma & Indian Medical Device 2022, Alva, who heads Skanray Technologies, also demanded a white paper to find what happened to USD 1 billion allocations every year on the rural healthcare programmes in the country over the last ten years.
“Just attracting MNCs and Indian companies in medtech would not happen unless there is demand and demand is through Ayushman Bharat and rural healthcare programmes. I think there is a need to publish white paper every year to find what happened to one billion dollar allocations every year that we made on the rural healthcare programmes in the last ten years,” he said.
The deployment has been quite different from what has been allocated, he added.
“The second important thing for the medtech sector is the transparent government tendering, procurement and payment systems. It is not the right forum but there are various states which have not paid to the medtech sector in the last four years. The sector which is already in quite bad shape is on the verge of collapsing,” Alva said.
He also pointed towards long periods taken to resolve industrial disputes in the country.
“A lot of investors are asking us to have a corporate office in Singapore, the UK, the Netherlands because it takes endless time to get justice for industrial disputes in the country,” Alva noted.
He also pointed out communication gap between different ministries dealing with the medtech sector.
“For vision 2030 and 2047 we request the minister for a three day intensive workshop where we have MEA, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Meity and Ministry of Women and Child Development to evolve an action plan to bring all the departments together. One thing common in the current situation is the communication between different ministries when it comes to the medtech sector,” Alva said.
He noted that the USD 100 billion target was achievable if measures were undertaken in a swift manner.
“Domestically and internationally there are about 7-8 countries in the world that are supplying products to the rest of the countries and India being very strong in high complexity low volume products has an opportunity to go from fraction of billion dollars to USD 30 billion by 2030 and USD 100 billion dollars by 2047,” he stated.
While terming medical technology as a critical sector, Alva noted that there is a need to create a strong domestic demand to fuel future growth.
“India has USD 30 billion export potential by 2030 in the medtech sector and USD 100 billion by 2047 if we act now and act fast,” he said.
It is also important to incentivise domestic R&D, component manufacturing base and not just last minute assembly, he added.
Speaking for the pharma segment, Astrazeneca MD and Chair FICCI Pharma Committee Gagandeep Singh said the industry is currently pegged at around USD 42 billion out of which USD 24 billion comes out of exports.
“More importantly, as we look into Vision 2047 we have potential to go up to 150 to 180 billion dollars from where we stand. This is based on the opportunity which exists across the world as well as reforms in the healthcare sector we see in the country,” he noted.
He further said: “As we go deeper and as we go higher this is something which is possible. An example is the opportunity we have with biosimilars as well as complex generics. They could give us the next wave of growth when it comes to exports.” Habil Khorakiwala, Past President, FICCI and Founder Chairman & Group CEO, Wockhardt Ltd said that there is an urgent need to be in mission mode for the industry so that it can become a leader in innovation in the next 25 years.
He further stated that in order to become globally competitive, new cost effective medicines were needed. PTI MSS MR
