No.PR-86 May 18, 2020 New Delhi The growth of medical device will tremendously increase in coming future with lots of innovation in AI and Telemedicine add to the growth of entire Medical Device Sector: Dr. N. Subramanian, Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital New Delhi, 18th May 2020: The current disruption is ushering irreversible changes in the economy, and that includes the Medical Device Sector. To help the sector chart-out expedient roadmaps in these times of uncertainty, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with Voice Of Healthcare (VOH) hosted a webinar on “STAYING AHEAD OF THE CORONA CURVE – Rebooting Med Device strategy @ COVID-19” with leading minds in the Medical Device Space. The webinar was sponsored by Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. The eminent panelists who deliberated in the webinar were Mr. Sunil Khurana – CEP & MD – BPL Technologies; Mr. Ganesh Sabbat, CEO, Sahajanand Medical Technology Pvt. Ltd; Dr. N. Subramanian, Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, and Chair, Health Committee, PHD Chamber; Mr. Sanjay Jha, Co-Founder & Director – Collateral Medical Pvt Ltd. and Mr. Ritesh Dogra, Managing Partner, Medium Healthcare Consulting. Mr. Pradeep Multani, Vice-President, PHD Chamber, in his welcome address mentioned that the medical devices industry in India consists of large multinationals, with extensive service networks, as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Giving about the current market size, he also mentioned an increase in exports in countries like Singapore, Germany, China, and others. He highlighted that the healthcare sector is at the epicenter of this unprecedented global pandemic challenge, and the private sector is offering all the support to the government. He also mentioned Hon’ble Prime Minister speech that we stand at a very crucial juncture and such a big disaster is a signal for India which has brought a message and an opportunity. Mr. Sunil Khurana, CEO & MD, BPL Technologies, giving a brief about his company, emphasized that their company is constantly doing research and development and focusing on innovations to making those products. While deliberating on the issue he mentioned that India needs to develop some quality products, which could be taken out of the country and could be exported. The government should also identify some companies, who want to move out of China and could help in setting up the business. There’s a need to develop an ecosystem where we have a transparent support system in required times. Also, the government could give us some export incentives to align with China, which will help the entire medical Device Industry. Dr. N. Subramanian, Director, Medical Services, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, and Chair, Health Committee, PHD Chamber said the government have played a crucial role in dealing with COVID-19 and other initiatives by the government. like swatch Bharat, this will surely help in creating awareness and treating various diseases. While giving an outline of the topic, he said that they are still very low on hospital beds unit, but we are growing and he expects by 2025 we will have around 2.9 million beds units. He said both the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industry has shown tremendous innovation in recent years and there’ a need to manufacture good quality of diagnostic products. The growth of medical devices will tremendously increase in the coming future with lots of innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and telemedicine also coming forward and will add to the growth of the entire Medical device sector. Mr. Ganesh Sabbat, CEO, Sahajanand Medical Technology Pvt Ltd thanked all the panelists and said that we all are proud of the entire Health care community for saving various lives of the people. He said in India the recovery rate is very high, and it’s because of the qualified Health Professionals, who have devoted their time and made it successful. Mr. Ganesh Sabbat said the Medical Device has a lot of scope in the coming years, He said that India needs to develop a larger domestic market to create a medical device ecosystem. The need of the hour is to invest in all healthcare areas & build critical volume that domestic players can tap onto. Along with an enabling ecosystem, we need to focus on monitoring quality, support clinical trials, coupled with Govt programs that assist domestic companies to cope with regulatory processes through financial assistance to access larger markets like USA, Europe & Japan. Low cost & low quality are not synonyms. The world is struggling with healthcare cost burden and India can be a solution with low cost but high-quality products. We have unparalleled engineering talent along with well-proven Pharma capability, two ingredients that are essential for the successful medical device industry. Indian Industry is also quite resilient, and we can take on market challenges with enabling policies, said Mr. Ganesh Sabbat. Mr. Sanjay Jha, Co-Founder, Colmed Collateral Medical Pvt Ltd, giving a brief about the initiatives and working taken by the company to take the COVID-19 situation. He said the COVID-19 has changed our minds and thinking. He urges the entire medical device sector should take these opportunities and work together to tackle the COVID situation and taking the medical device sector way ahead. Mr. Ritesh Dogra, Managing Partner, Medium Consulting said the government has taken various initiatives tackling COVID-19 situation. He said we need to think of the utilization of funding provided by the government. This is the time for the entire medical equipment companies to come forward and work together for the development. He highlighted that there’s a lot of manufacturing units and by focusing on and using modern technology these companies can produce and deliver various hospitals. There a lot of scope for the Medical device companies in the coming years by following the value ecosystem, which requires collaborations and delivering it. The Webinar was moderated by Mr. Vivek Seigell, Principal Director, PHD Chamber, and was attended by more than 80 participation and industry stalwarts all over the country. Ends. Media Division PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry