An One Stop E-auction Portal for Indian Medical Device Industry
Despite Government research labs having made impressive progress in medical device technology research, national imports of critical medical equipment like artificial dialysis machines, haemodialyser, defibrillator, lithotripsy equipment, ECHO, EEG, ECG, anesthesia equipment, laparoscope, endoscope etc remains as high as 85%. The country also imports diagnostic imaging items like X-ray tubes, CT scan and MRI and consumables like a cardiac catheter, syringe, suture, and dialyzers. All this while the breakthroughs made by Indian scientists and engineers keep gathering dust.
In a welcome move, Hon’ble Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister, Shri H.N. Ananth Kumar launched an E-Auction portal at the third India Pharma 2018 and India Medical Device 2018 conclave. The E-Auction portal will provide one window access for Indian Medical Device industry to bid and purchase the technologies developed across all research labs funded by the Government of India. This pooling of technology at one marketplace will help manufacturers easily identify available technology and bid enabling the research labs to get remunerative price for their technology. This is indeed a win-win for all the stakeholders. The nation stands to gain by reducing imports and probably one day become a net exporter of medical technologies to the world.
The E-Auction portal has been conceptualized and developed by Kalam Institute of Health Technology (KIHT). KIHT located in Visakhapatnam has been promoted by the Ministry of Biotechnology, Government of India. The mandate of the institute is to facilitate research on critical components pertaining to medical devices by supporting institutions involved with R&D, industry, policy makers and knowledge repositories.
We at Branolia Chemical Works congratulate the government, KIHT and the industry for this unique public-private partnership to make India self-reliant in the medical technology domain. We also feel that this initiative will go a long way in making medical treatment cheaper in the country.
