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The Impact of COVID-19 on
The Medical Device Industry
We are in the midst of an unprecedented global health
crisis.
As a result, health care systems are overwhelmed, and the
effective delivery of medical care to all patients has become
a challenge worldwide. To free-up limited space for people
being treated for the virus, hospitals have postponed, or
cancelled, many elective operations - especially those deemed
to be non-essential or non-urgent. Medical
device manufacturers have not escaped the pandemic’s impact.
The Industry finds itself playing an urgent role in both
helping detect the virus and supplying frontline healthcare
workers with the equipment needed to fight it. Industry
players outside those realms must still adapt to a changing
economic landscape in which supply chains, face-to-face sales
interactions, and elective surgeries have all been disrupted.
This crisis calls on the medical device industry to work
closely with customers, patients, regulators, and public
organizations for the sake of public health. Medical device
professionals will have an essential role to play in the fight
against COVID-19. Industries, markets and
businesses the world over have been turned upside down by
Covid-19, and this impact has been especially profound within
the medical device sector. While many
countries have attempted to ease shortages by importing
equipment, domestic manufacturing of many devices has also
increased during the crisis. The European
Union has postponed its new set of Medical Devices Regulations
for medtech Industry by one year. Many
companies from the biotech, pharma and medical devices
industries started urgently to develop coronavirus test kits.
In the demand scenario , while elective procedures have
decreased significantly and the decrease in demand for devices
used in these procedures , there is an increased demand for
devices like ventilators, PPE, and diagnostic kits. In last
few months , CDSCO has issued several notifications to
manufacturing and supply of COVID 19 related devices.
In the following articles in this issue, a galaxy of Indian
Industry leaders share their experience and knowledge related
to effective combating of current situation and the future
short term and long term solutions for growth. |
