Secretary DoP expounds concept of ‘Proximate Advantage’ at MTaI fraternity meeting in India

Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI), which represents leading research-based medical technology companies with a large footprint in manufacturing and training in India, recently organised a high–level meeting with government stakeholders, and MediTech industry captains in New Delhi. The event was graced by Dr Arunish Chawla, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), and MAseem Sahu, Deputy Drugs Controller, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).

The event revolved around India's prospects and obstacles within the MediTech domain including tariff and non-tariff barriers, price control, procurement challenges, the need for standard harmonization, and streamlining the regulatory landscape. Alongside this, various strategic inputs also were discussed aiming to encourage investments in India's healthcare sector.

Speaking during the event, Pavan Choudary, Chairman, MTaI stated, “The government and its offices like the Department of Pharmaceuticals, CDSCO deserve our appreciation for creating policies that have enabled the upward growth trajectory of India’s medical device sector in recent years. The last marker of this ascent is the record breaking FDI in the sector in 2023. The continued learning of the intricacies of this sector will be key to achieving the goal of making India a MediTech hub”.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Arunish Chawla, Secretary, DoP said, “Most MediTech hubs around the world specialise in a few segments that they robustly export. Therefore, for the growth of the Meditech sector in India, we must initially focus on areas where the country already has some underlying strengths, like Medical Textiles, Consumables, Software, Artificial Intelligence, etc. Growth budding from areas close to our strengths is proximate growth. And this I call the ‘Proximate Advantage’ which we should leverage to begin with.”

“To take a comprehensive view, we have been collating the metadata and will organize the first of its kind, think tank event for the MediTech sector called the ‘India MediStack’ in Delhi NCR. This will be a very important congregation of MediTech experts which will raise the caliber of dialogue in this space”, he added.