Critical medical devices to become affordable soon

An agency has been established by the government in order to regulate costs of medical devices. The plan is to encourage domestic manufacturers under $3.5 billion industry under the make in India campaign. This is an attempt to reduce healthcare prices even in the private sector.

At present, U.S is the country from which India imports about seventy fifth of equipment like cardiac stents and implants. The problem here is that the country only has a limited capacity to provide the medical devices indigenously, this increases costs.

According to some sources, the prices of some devices could be reduced by 50 percent. The reason for such reduction is that government intends to correct the rate distortion by issuing a medical control order. The order is similar to the one for 343 essential medicines under the Essential Commodities Act.

A study has shown one example of price of cardio treatment in a private hospital in 2014 was around Rs.43,263, however the same device in government hospital is around Rs.11,549. Similar high prices were conjointly reported at private institutes for treatment of varied ailments that need implants and different equipment.

The medical devices business in India is expected to grow at an annual rate of 16 percent. The government is planning to make India for the manufacturing of medical devices just like the pharmaceutical sector and make India one of the world’s leading exporters.

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