Centre to set up clusters for medical devices manufacturing

The Centre is planning to set up a dedicated cluster for medical devices manufacturing and the first medical devices park would come up in Gujarat followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The facility would also have common facilitation centre (CFC) for R&D. The Centre would set up the CFC in association with the state government.

This was revealed by secretary, department of pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers, Ashok Kumar, who was in Mohali (Punjab)to inaugurate a three-day seminar on “ Emerging Trends in Diagnosis & Experimental Chemotherapy of Tuberculosis.”

Speaking to Business Standard he said, “At present almost 80 per cent of the medical devices are imported from overseas, so visualising the potential and need, the ministry decided to set up medical devices cluster in Gujarat, which would be spread over 144 acres. We have also plans to set up common facilitation centre at the proposed location to help the units situated in the cluster as well as nearby to assist them in R & D. The work on the proposed project is likely to be kicked off from July 2010. Further, on lines of Gujarat cluster, in second phase we are planning to set up medical devices cluster at Chennai and Andhra Pradesh.” According to industry estimates, the total market for medical devices in the world is estimated at around Rs 20,000 crore.

Commenting upon the pharmaceutical industry, he said,” This year has been pretty good for the industry. We expect that overall the industry will grow by 15 per cent by the end of this fiscal year. So far exports is concerned it is likely to grow by 22-25 per cent, while the domestic market is expected to grow by 15 per cent.” It is worth mentioning that last fiscal year the total turnover of the pharmaceutical industry was Rs 90,000 crore

On being asked about unbranded generic (generic generic) drugs store popularly known as Jan Aushadhi, he added, “At present 40 stores are there across India and they are doing very well. We plan to take the total number of such stores to 70-75 by the end of this fiscal. Further, we have plans to open generic drugs store in each district of the country by the end of 2012.”He added that there would be less margin in these drugs and so the drug sold in these stores would be cheaper.

Interacting with Business Standard, he also informed that the Centre had plans to open dedicated Small and Medium Pharmaceutical Industry Centre (SMPIC) in seven new NIPER institutes in a phased manner on the lines of the country’s first dedicated SMPIC, which has been set up at National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali in Punjab.