Govt to Promote Local Manufacturing of 110 Medical Devices over 5 Yrs

The government figures indicate a compound annual growth rate of 13.9% in the export of medical devices over the past four years, compared to an 8.6% CAGR in imports.

The Indian government has identified around 110 medical devices for significant local manufacturing promotion over the next five years, capitalizing on the rising exports of medical devices.

Medical devices encompass nearly 15,000 commonly used items, from syringes to advanced positron emission tomography (PET) scanners.

A roadmap prepared by the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers outlines a plan to leverage India's existing strengths by supporting and promoting 113 specific products manufactured within the country.

Diverse Equipment Range

The targeted medical devices span eight segments: cancer therapy, imaging, assistive medical devices, body implants, surgical instruments and hospital equipment, consumables and disposables, in-vitro diagnostic instruments, and reagents.

These include cochlear implants, breast implants, knee and hip implants, hearing aids, contact lenses, X-ray machines, ultrasound machines, chemotherapy devices, ventilators, defibrillators, and dialysis machines.

Other items include syringes, stethoscopes, surgical gowns, drapes, masks, pregnancy test kits, kits for testing mosquito-borne diseases, TB, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases, pulse oximeters, and heart-lung machines.

Both Indian companies and multinational corporations with manufacturing units in India are expected to produce these products.

According to government data accessed by ThePrint, India imported medical devices worth $8,188 million in 2023-24 while exporting equipment worth $3,785 million.

Exports largely included consumables and disposables including masks, syringes, gloves, catheters, and imaging equipment such as X-ray and ultrasound machines.

Rising Export Coverage Ratio

"A large share of medical devices used in India continue to be imported, but over the last three years, we have managed to raise the import coverage ratio from 0.34 in 2021-22 to 0.46 in 2023-24," said DoP secretary Arunish Chawla.

The government figures indicate a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.9% in the export of medical devices over the past four years, compared to an 8.6% CAGR in imports. The goal is to reduce India's import dependence from the current 75 to 50% within five years.

"We aim to improve export competitiveness for medical devices through value-added manufacturing, building capacity to manufacture world-class, high-quality products, and raising the import coverage ratio to 1 over the next five years," Chawla added.

Production Linked Incentive Scheme

The market size of the medical devices sector in India was estimated to be $14 billion (approximately INR 1,10,000 Cr) in 2022, with a global market share of 1.5%.

Under the center's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for medical devices, first introduced in 2020, the government has announced support for setting up four medical device parks in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

So far, 26 projects have been approved under the scheme, with a committed investment of INR 1,206 Cr. Of this, INR 958 Cr has already been invested.

Fourteen projects producing 37 products have been commissioned, and domestic manufacturing of high-end medical devices has commenced, including linear accelerators, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, computed tomography (CT) scans, mammograms, and high-end X-ray tubes.

National Medical Devices Policy

Last year, the Union Cabinet approved the National Medical Devices Policy, which aims to facilitate the sector's orderly growth through regulatory streamlining, infrastructure development, R&D facilitation, and investment attraction.

Industry veterans, such as Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) forum coordinator Rajiv Nath, highlighted the success of the export of disposables and consumables.

"Initial focus should be here to build on global competitiveness," Nath said. Government data supports Nath's view. In 2021-22, India exported consumables and disposables worth $1,387 million, which rose to $1,752 million in 2023-24.

During the same period, imports in this segment decreased from $1,624 million to $1,185 million.

Pavan Choudary, chairman of the Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI), emphasized the government's focus on medtech manufacturing through various schemes and policies.

"The new and productive turn is of proximate advantage as it is focusing on areas where the country already has some underlying strengths like medical textiles, consumables, software, and AI," Choudary noted.

According to Chouary, most medtech hubs around the world specialize in a few segments that they robustly manufacture and export, and these segments lie in the vicinity of their existing strengths.

“We, therefore, believe that this directional change in the government's emphasis and its thorough execution, as is being witnessed, will galvanize the medtech 'Make in India' program," he added.