J&J faulty hip implant row: Noose tightens around medical devices importers

After the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) faulty artificial hip implant controversy, the government is plugging loopholes in the Medical Devices Rules (MDR) 2017 to ensure action against the players who violate regulations. 

In its meeting on Thursday, the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) passed a proposal to include a provision in the MDR for cancellation and suspension of import licence of the medical devices in case of noncompliance with the regulatory provisions. 

India imports around 80 per cent of its medical devices and a fourth of that comes from the US. The overall medical devices market in India is estimated to be