Shri Amit Agrawal, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals chaired the session yesterday on “Leveraging Inter-sectoral Networking for Med-Tech Innovations” as part of the two-day South East and South Asia regional meet on “Health Research and Innovations in Public Health: Exchange of Good Practices across RESEARCH Platform” organised by the Department of Health Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, New Delhi. The session brought together senior health functionaries from the governments and public health agencies from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Timor-Leste to deliberate on strengthening health research systems, facilitate exchange of good practices and promote cross-border collaboration in South and Southeast Asia. The meeting is part of the Regional Enabler for South and Southeast Asia Research for Health (RESEARCH) Platform, which aims to foster solidarity, knowledge-sharing and collaboration among participating countries.

Addressing the session, Shri Amit Agrawal, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals underscored that “health knows no boundaries”. He observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the critical need for collaboration, across borders, between sectors and among government departments and public health agencies, in creating resilient and strong healthcare systems.                                                                                 

Shri Agrawal emphasised the need to strengthen the medical device sector ecosystem not only through technology and skilled manpower, but also by establishing internationally accredited laboratories, adopting globally harmonised standards and supporting clinical investigations for innovative devices to achieve economies of scale but aggregating demand beyond national borders. With the ongoing development of medical device parks in India and ICMR’s MedTech Mitra and Patent Mitra initiatives, clinical trial support schemes and strengthened research platforms, India is systematically laying the foundation to emerge as a significant MedTech innovation hub.

The Secretary also highlighted the contributions of the National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs) in developing skilled human capital. Specialised courses in medical devices are now being offered across seven NIPERs, and these have been opened to foreign nationals as well.

Shri Agrawal stated that medical technologies will increasingly move beyond hospitals into households through digitalisation, thereby making healthcare more accessible and affordable. He also highlighted the importance of the Academia to Industry: Discovery Marketplace platform developed by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, which aims to enable connect industry, startups, academic and research institutes and other stakeholders in the pharma-MedTech sector for partnerships, collaborations and tie-ups for innovative products and promote breakthroughs for both commercial and public good.

Shri Agrawal summed up the session by stressing the importance of RESEARCH PLATFORM in making the South East and South Asian region a global powerhouse for MedTech innovations.

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(Release ID: 2160002)