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The
present world market for medical devices has touched the
figure of 200 Billion US Dollar (Rs. 10 Lakh crores) and
is further growing at the rate of 10-12% annually.
Inspite of the fact that India itself has a potential
market, the medical device industry in India has not
grown the way it should have been. Out of more than 2500
devices in the market, only few are being manufactured
in India. The number of manufacturing facility at par
with International standard can be counted on fingers.
The
medical device field has a vast diversity. However, most
medical device manufacturers require few common
technological needs. These needs can be divided into
horizontal and vertical needs. The horizontal needs
include : a manufacturing facility with clean room for
assembly; Injection moulding machine; Extruder &
Co-extruder; Packaging machine; Printing machine,
Quality Control instruments,. The vertical needs of
course vary on product-to-product basis.
A high
cost of technology obtained from outside the country has
resulted into high cost of medical devices. In an era
where not only quality but also customer delight is
talked about, need for developing technology locally is
pertinent. This will lead to availability of medical
devices to the customer at an affordable cost. But we
cannot ignore the fact that in absence of immediate
market for the product manufactured indigenously, every
manufacturer cannot establish every facility inhouse and
therefore a cluster approach wherein a number of
industry join hands and provide services to each other
in production, quality control as well as problem
resolving can work very well.
We have
also failed to utilize our resources and knowledge in
developing this field to our advantage. There are a
number of academic institutions in the country. The
medical device industry has not been able to exploit
benefit of the scientific community and facilities
available in these institutions. There has to be an
amalgamation of expertise of various disciplines in
Engineering and Medicine to come up with generation of
ideas and converting them into technology leading to
innovations. In other words, there is a need for
Industry-Academia Interaction. Moreover, development of
technology depends upon basic training. Unfortunately,
in spite of a number of academic institutions in
engineering and medicine in the country, only few
institutions are offering education directly related to
Medical Devices and therefore the basic training in this
field is lacking. Those who get into this stream may
also get diverted because still the industry has not
been able to offer them good career opportunities.
Furthermore,
medical device regulation as of today is limited to few
devices and has not been able to address the whole
field. An umbrella approach to medical device regulation
is needed.
On the
basis of our experience on some of the medical devices,
where indigenous technological advances have been made,
it is obvious that local development of technology and
innovation can only be the main contributor to this
ever-growing field.
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