Govt to bring bill to regulate medical equipment sector

The Government will soon bring a Bill which is aimed at regulating the medical equipments industry in the county which so far has remained unregulated.
The new Bill will replace the existing Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, 2007 which is pending in Parliament and will have to be withdrawn.
Giving this information here today, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Arun Kumar Panda said regulation of medical devices industry has been a major challenge for the government and present thousands of such equipments are used in an unregulated manner.
The government will soon put up before the Cabinet the new bill which will have a separate chapter on medical devices, he said addressing a seminar -- 'Harnessing Medical Technology for inclusive healthcare in India'.

The Bill provides for monitoring and setting standards for medical devices. The Bill, if passed, will help strengthen the domestic manufacturing industry and could make medical devices more accessible and affordable to the people at large in the country.
Panda said India's pharmaceutical sector has made rapid strides in the last few years and "we still need to create a place of our own in the medical devices sector".
He said the Government is keen on strenghtening its regulatory body- Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation -- by providing more skilled manpower and better infrastructure in its offices across the country.

For that, the government has already allocated Rs 1800 crore at national level during the current 12th five year plan and Rs 1200 crores to the states for the same.