COLLABORATIONS INVITED BETWEEN INDIA AND JAPAN PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICAL DEVICES SECTOR

Currently, India ranks amongst the top 20 global medical devices entities and has the 4th largest medical devices market in Asia. Recently, the Embassy of India, Tokyo and the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India had organised a Webinar on 22-05-2020 to discuss the challenges and emerging opportunities in the field of Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals and to boost the business and trade collaborations between India and Japan in the current and post-Covid-19 scenario.[1]

The Government of India has invited Japanese companies to avail the benefits of the following Schemes that have been introduced to boost domestic manufacturing of medical devices:

1- Production Linked Incentive Schemes 

This Scheme aims at providing financial incentive to promote domestic manufacturing of medical devices like cancer care or radiotherapy medical devices, radiology and imaging medical devices, etc. It further aims to attract investments in the medical devices sector. The incentive would be based on the incremental sales of goods manufactured in India.[2]

2- Promotion of Medical Devices Parks

The Government has introduced the Development of Common Facility Centre (CFC) for Medical Device Scheme to provide financial assistance to set up common facilities in a Medical Device Park, such as component testing centre, injection moulding centers, radiation testing centre, etc. The Central Government would provide Rs. 25 Crores per Medical Device Park CFC or 70% of the project cost of CFC, whichever is less, to the State Implementing Agency (SIA). The SIA would be responsible for the day to day management of the Medical Device Park.[3]

3- Further, the State Governments of Gujarat, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Goa have also offered them various incentives and taxation benefits, ease of doing business initiatives, land availability, infrastructural facilities, regulatory framework, etc, to attract investments in their respective states.

This collaboration between India and Japan may boost the growth of the pharma and medical devices industry and also, stabilize the global supply-chain of medical devices.

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[1] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1626121

[2]https://pharmaceuticals.gov.in/sites/default/files/Production%20Linked%20Incentive%20Scheme%20for%20Promoting%20Domestic%20Manufacturing%20of%20Medical%20Devices.pdf

[3] https://pharmaceuticals.gov.in/sites/default/files/SCHEME%20GUIDELINES.pdf