Day 2 update - 10 October 2018
The main sessions covered on Day 2 were: ’Strengthening Regulatory Networks for Facilitating Access to quality, safe and affordable Medical Products; Global Models for High-end Manufacturing of Medical Products; Standard setting and quality benchmarks for medical devices and Diagnostics in National and Global Markets; Medical Diagnostics in National and Global Markets; Promoting Health and Wellness through Traditional Medicine; Developing Efficiencies in Clinical Trials in Global, Regional and National Settings; and Access and Affordability of Medical Products with focus on Orphan and Rare drugs.
Speaking at a session on `Global Models for High-end Manufacturing of Medical products’, Dr Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Managing Director, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) stated that the start-up culture has gained a momentum in the country and there is a tremendous change in the mindset of researchers to move towards new medical developments. She affirmed the government’s support in promoting new ideas and shared that the start-up companies backed with intellectual knowledge generated through sustained research and development are picking up momentum in India. “However, creating an enabling ecosystem require inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral collaboration and the need to simplify the regulatory system,” she said.
Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) also shared his views on the manufacturing of high-end medical devices. He stated that manufacturing of medical equipment is an important area where the government and the key stakeholders need to ramp-up their efforts to reduce dependency on imports. The need is to explore possible models of collaboration with other countries to manufacture high-end medical equipment such as MRI scanners, and CT scanners etc.