Bengluru|HL
Pharma and Med Tech Zone to be set up soon at Bengaluru said Annanth Kumar Union Minister for Chemicals to boost domestic manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and medical devices in India under the Make in India mission .
Union Minister for Chemicals has announced that Bengaluru, being the hub of Information technology and skilled manpower, would prove to be the ideal location to set up a Pharma and Med Tech Zone and hence the Ministry would work with the State Government to establish it soon.
Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Ananthkumar inaugurated the 2nd edition of India Pharma & India Medical Device International Conference in Bengaluru today. The three day event, with the Vision – ‘For Responsible Healthcare’, is being organized by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) from 11th-13th February, 2017.
Further at the conference he also announced that Medical device will be soon delinked from the pharma sector so that it can chart a distinct and definitive course along with a facilitating regulatory frame work.Till now, the medical device sector has been governed by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 which was primarily meant for regulating the pharmaceutical industry. For pharma manufacturing purpose, the nodal industry has been ministry of chemicals and fertilizer. Globally, the medical device industry is completely separate from pharma sector and governed by separate set of legislations and regulatory framework.
Ananth Kumar said: “It is time for this sector to fly like butterfly and the pharmaceutical and medical devices to be spun off as a separate ministry of pharmaceutical and medical devices. I have recommended this to the Prime Minister and this request is under active consideration by the PM and PMO.”
Also, in order to boost ‘Make in India’ program and reduce import dependency, medical device sector to be included as one of the 25 flagship industries, said union minister of state for commerce, Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday at the Indian Pharma and Indian Medical Devices International conference in Bengaluru.
“Like Pharma has earned respect worldwide, I hope medical devices similarly earn this respect globally and achieve global manufacturing competitiveness. Medical devices is now being made a part of 25 Make in India focus sectors,” said Ms Sitharaman at the conference amid the presence of senior representatives from Central an State government as well as top representatives from pharma and medical device sector.
