More M. Tech seats in medical engineering to be created; trade gap in medical devices to be wiped out in five years

New Delhi: The government will start M. Tech courses in medical engineering at leading institutions like IITs and NITs among measures aimed at creating a pool of skilled talent for testing and operating high-tech medical devices and reducing import dependence in this key sector.

Other measures include scaling up the number of seats for this course in National Institutes for Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs) and funding the training of technicians at the premises of medical device makers, Arunish Chawla, secretary in the department of pharmaceuticals said in an interview.

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India has a $14 billion medical device market -- the fourth largest in Asia after Japan, China and South Korea, and among the top 20 in the world. But its share in the global market is only 1.5%. The government expects it to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 15%, as per data available from the department.

Part of scheme

The plan is part of a ₹500 crore scheme launched earlier this month to boost the medtech sector. The department has started with 100 M. Tech seats in medical engineering at NIPERs. The plan is to double the seats next year, Chawla said.

The initial target is to train 1,000 technicians at business premises.

The scheme supports setting up common facilities for medical device clusters. The government will also finance investments for reducing import dependence and support medical device clinical studies.

“Every high-tech industry is dependent on high-tech materials and intermediates. We need to have domestic investments to increase domestic value add. Wherever marginal investments will lead to reduced import dependence, we will provide a one-time capital subsidy limited to 20% in relative terms and ₹20 crore in absolute terms,” the official said.

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The scheme will complement India’s production linked incentives and help to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian businesses in building self-reliance in key raw materials for pharmaceuticals and in medical devices.

Chawla described the scheme as a post-PLI strategy for Make in India.

“Industrial ecosystems emerge from linkages and the most efficient way of helping businesses to become world class is to take care of their marginal requirements and provide marginal incentives for common facilities like testing etc. which cannot be internalized inside the boundary of their plant,” said Chawla.

In short supply

Notably, medical device technicians are in short supply in India.

“We are supporting all the engineering institutes—IITs, NITs, technical institutions and NIPERs to start M.Tech courses for medical engineers. NIPERs are setting up the enabling environment to start the same. NIPERs have just introduced M.Tech courses, however, our capacity is 100. We are also identifying faculties for these courses. Right now, this is the demand of the rising medtech industry. This scheme also provides for in situ training and skill upgradation for technicians which means –that you can train your techincians in your own premises without sending them anywhere and we will support them,” he said.

In FY24, India exported medical devices worth ₹3,785 crore while their imports stood at ₹8,188 crore. 

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“The gap between import and export has already started narrowing. With the support of the scheme, we hope to close the trade gap by 2030,” the pharma secretary said.

The scheme also supports clinical studies. “Medical devices which we are making at the level of international quality standards, will be given some reimbursement for doing clinical evaluation studies that will help them get statutory approvals and compete in the global market,” he said.

He said innovation is the biggest challenge for the pharmaceuticals sector. 

The government has completed around 50 PLI projects. Of these the five largest were inaugurated by the Prime Minister last month, including for bulk drugs, complex generics, new formulations and medical devices.

“The plants for manufacturing coronary stents, body implants and critical care equipment will help reduce import dependence in a sector which is critical to healthcare. All this production will be done in the international quality standards and will be export compatible,” Chawla said.