Government of India is giving a push to medical equipment manufacturing in the country. Several manufacturing licenses have been issued for high-end equipment such as CT scan, MRI scan, high-end digital X-ray, digital mammography, linear accelerator. At the same time these high-end equipment are also imported from various countries.  

Department of Pharmaceuticals has taken the following programmatic interventions to encourage domestic manufacturing to reduce import dependency of medical devices:

1. Under the scheme “Promotion of Medical Devices Parks”, final approval for financial assistance of Rs. 100 crore each has been given to the States of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh for establishment of common facilities in their Medical Device Parks. The Parks will provide common testing and laboratory facilities / centre at one place reducing the manufacturing cost significantly and help in creating a robust ecosystem for medical device manufacturing in the country. First installment of Rs. 30 crore has been released to each of the selected States.

2. Under the sub-scheme “Assistance to Medical Device Industry for Common Facility Centre”, approval for grant-in-aid of Rs. 25 crore was provided to Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone Ltd. (AMTZ), Andhra Pradesh for establishment of Common Facility for Super conducting magnetic coil testing and research facility.

3. Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Pharmaceuticals, with the tenure from FY 2020-2021 to 2028-29, five (5) industry applicants have been selected under the scheme for in-vitro diagnostic medical devices.
4. Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Promoting Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices with a financial outlay of Rs. 3,420 Cr and with the tenure from FY 2020-21 to FY 2027-28, financial incentive is given to selected companies at the rate of 5% of incremental sales of medical devices manufactured in India for a period of five (5) years. The following four segments under the scheme, cover high-end medical devices –

1. 1. Cancer care/Radiotherapy medical devices
   2. Radiology & Imaging medical devices (both ionizing & non-ionizing radiation products) and Nuclear Imaging Devices
   3. Anaesthetics & Cardio-Respiratory medical devices including Catheters of Cardio-respiratory Category & Renal Care Medical Devices
   4. All Implants including implantable electronic devices. In total 21 applicants have been approved under the scheme. The list of selected applicants is also available on Department of Pharmaceuticals website  

1.  (https://pharmaceuticals.gov.in/sites/default/files/List%20of%20approved%20applicants%20MD%20_0.pdf)

The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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MV

HFW/ Push to Medical Equipment Manufacturing/09 December 2022/1