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DoP releases strategy document to fine tune & implement National Medical Devices Policy

In an effort to fine tune and proceed with the implementation of the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023, launched in the month of May, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has come out with an elaborate strategy document which emphasises on data security measures, adoption of national nomenclature for medical devices, a strategy to manage e-waste of obsolete medical devices and strengthening of technology transfer capabilities in the sector.

It would also work towards providing awareness to the innovatory community on regulator compliance, early on in the product development cycle through structured programmes using course curriculum, skill training or workshops, it said.

The NMDP, 2023 covers six broad areas of work for the promotion of the medical devices industry including regulatory streamlining, enabling infrastructures, facilitating research and development and innovation, attracting investments in the sector, human resource development and brand positioning and awareness creation.

As part of infrastructure development, the strategy document states, “”In close coordination with the ministry of environment, forest and climate changes, processes will be developed for e-waste management of obsolete medical devices”.

“The Policy strives to create an ecosystem to promote Research and Innovation in the sector under the ambit of the department’s proposed separate ‘Policy to Catalyse R&D and Innovation in the Pharma-MedTech Sector in India’”

Besides, a mechanism will be put in place to hand-hold the innovators and IP holders towards commercialisation of the products

Under the fiscal and non-fiscal measures to attract investments in the sector, it looks at incubation support for start ups in the R&D and innovation, mentorship for entrepreneurs along with skill development, such as business management, market access and commercialisation efforts for the innovation solutions developed, technology transfer mechanism for innovative solutions and relations for start-ups in compliance and regulatory regime.

Under the human resources development strategy, it envisages that since the human resources in the field of design are limited, the National Institutes of Design (NID) and private design schools will be encouraged to teach design centric courses to fill the gap, it added.

Click here to read the Strategy document

Source:https://pharmaceuticals.gov.in/policy/strategy-document-national-medical-devices-policy-2023

Source:http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=160035&sid=1

Govt releases Guidelines for scheme for Assistance to Medical Devices Clusters

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has come out with the guidelines for the scheme for Assistance to Medical Device Clusters for Common Facilities (AMD-CF) with proposed financial outlay of Rs. 300 crore to offer financial assistance to strengthen the existing and new medical device clusters through creation of common infrastructure facilities

The Scheme, with two sub-schemes, is expected to help in boosting the domestic manufacturing capacity and improving the quality of clusters for sustainable growth of the medical devices sector.

The scheme further intends to support central or state governments, institutions, or organisations to establish or strengthen the testing laboratories for medical devices to meet the needs arising due to the roll out of the licensing regime of the Medical Devices Rules (MDR), 2017.

The Scheme has two components or sub schemes – Assistance for Common Facilities (CF) and Assistance for Testing Facilities (TF) – and would be running for three years from 2023-24 to 2025-26. The tenure of the scheme is from the financial year 2023-24 to the financial year 2026-27.

Both the sub-schemes are designed to set up 12 common facilities and 12 testing laboratories, under which the common facilities will be supported with a financial assistance of Rs. 240 crore (Rs. 48 crore in the first year, Rs. 128 crore in the second and Rs 64 crore in the third year) for the common facilities and Rs. 60 crore (Rs. 18 crore for the first, Rs. 30 crore for the second and Rs. 12 crore for the third year) for the testing facilities.

Assistance for Common Facilities is planned to strengthen the medical devices clusters’ capacity for their sustained growth by creating common infrastructure facilities.

Medical devices manufacturing units in a cluster who have come together to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to execute the project of developing common facilities and the clusters promoted by the State governments, are expected to benefit from the sub-scheme.

There shall be a minimum of five medical device manufacturing units as members of SPV. Clusters promoted by state governments may not need to form an SPV.

The SPV should have representatives from cluster members, financial institutions, state and central government and R&D organisations and the individual manufacturing unit cannot hold more than 40 per cent in the SPV. The Medical Devices enterprises shall hold at least 51 per cent equity of the SPV.

For Common Infrastructure Facilities for medical device clusters, the limit of support will be 70 per cent of the approved project cost or Rs. 20 crore, whichever is less, as per the approval of the Scheme Steering Committee (SSC).

The sub scheme is expected to have benefits including improvement in quality of medical devices, regulatory compliance specified for medical devices, increased availability of trained personnel for the clusters, increased competitiveness of units in the cluster and reduction in the manufacturing cost of the devices.

The sub scheme on assistance for Testing Facilities is aimed at strengthening availability of more Medical Device Testing Laboratories in order to boost manufacturing of quality medical devices, and national or state level government of private institutions interested to establish or strengthen testing facilities for medical devices to test Class A, B, C and D medical devices including in vitro diagnostic medical devices under MDR, 2017 can apply for the assistance.

The guideline proposes a Technical Committee constituted by the DoP to assist the SSC, which will have one representative each from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), industry and academia, and ICMR, and two representative experts having knowledge and experience in the process development, R&D, product design, testing of medical devices or medical devices manufacturing from relevant institutes such as NIPER, IISc, IITs, Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, and CSIR, among others.

The DoP will provide overall policy, coordination and management support for the implementation of the Scheme, while the proposals under the scheme will be considered for approval by the SSC, which will be headed by the Secretary of DoP as the Chairperson, and will have members including the Drugs Controller General of India, Financial Advisor of DoP, Joint Secretary (Schemes and Medical Devices), DoP, representatives of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), and the director or the deputy secretary (Schemes) of the DoP.

Click here to read the Guidelines

Source: https://thehealthmaster.com/2023/05/11/govt-releases-guidelines-for-scheme-for-assistance-to-medical-devices-clusters/