MoS Chemicals and Fertilizers presents India Pharma and India Medical Devices Awards 2022

Indian medical device sector has huge potential, and we must focus on producing hi-end technical equipment and machinery in India through increased innovation, research and development,” Bhagwanth Khuba, Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, stated at the 7th edition of International Conference on Pharma and Medical Devices sector 2022 in the presence of S Aparna, Secretary, Department of Pharma (DoP). The MoS, along with the DoP Secretary, also conferred India Pharma and India Medical Devices Awards 2022 on the occasion.

During the conference, four sessions were conducted yesterday on different themes – Transforming healthcare through innovation and integrated services, establishing patient-centered outcomes of care for promoting value-based procurement, manufacturing, demand and global supply chain of medical devices and research and development and innovation in medtech.

Addressing the event, Khuba said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are progressing in every sector, and are committed to provide speedy development to all. The pharma and medical devices sector is a key sector of the global as well as Indian economy. “We will become a 5 trillion-dollar economy as envisioned by the PM if we all work together,” he added.

The MoS also said that the Indian pharma and medical devices sector has huge growth potential. We can not only cater to the needs of the domestic market, but also manufacture for the world. “India has the capability of producing at low cost. We currently produce only 20 per cent of these equipment in India and are import dependent. The government is committed to extend all support to the industry to ensure that the country becomes AatmaNirbhar in the sector. In the last eight years, the government has taken various initiatives to propel growth in the sector. India can achieve self-reliance in pharma and medical devices only by strengthening its research and development infrastructure, which would drive expansion of access to life-saving medicines and position India as a global pharma and medical devices export hub.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said that the Indian healthcare industry has been growing at a fast pace since 2016 and it is expected to reach close to $380 billion this year. Inviting foreign investors to produce medical devices in India, Kant stated, “If you develop and manufacture medical devices here, you are not producing only for India, but for the world, and the market is huge in size and scale. Healthcare, along with the pharma and medical sector, is India’s biggest job creator. India’s relative cost competitiveness and availability of skilled labour will make it a favoured destination also for the medical value tourism in the years to come.”

S Aparna said that the medical device sector is a fast-growing sector and has rightly been identified as a sunrise sector. We have been able to extend support for this sector through a number of initiatives, including the PLI scheme, four medical devices parks in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. She also informed that the Medical Device Policy is in the final stages of approval and it includes inputs from various stakeholders. She also congratulated all the award winners of the industry and urged them to work towards realising the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat in the pharma and medical devices sector.

This year, DoP has announced six main categories of the India Pharma and India Medical Devices Awards in: -Leaders Category, Company of the year, MSME of the year, Start-ups of the year, Innovation Category and CSR Category. “This Award will act as a catalyst to improve the performance and quality of the pharma and medical devices manufactured in the country,” MoS said while congratulating and presenting the awards to the winners.

The winners of the awards are as follows: –

Senior officials from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, FICCI, Invest India and CEOs of various pharma and medical devices companies were also present at the conference.