Himanshu Baid, MD, Poly Medicure, talks about how Poly Medicure is catering to the changes in the Indian medical devices market
How do you see the last full budget of the present government?
As far as the healthcare is concerned, I’m very happy that the government has taken a huge step in making healthcare affordable and accessible by launching Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest healthcare scheme. We need to wait and watch how the government is going to fulfill the promise of bringing over 10 crore Below the Poverty Line (BPL) families under a health insurance scheme and enhance health insurance cover up to Rs 5 lakh, which is a big amount. For example, if a family of four is covered under the Rs 5 lakh plan, the cost of premium under the private insurance as of now is nearly Rs 20,000 a year. Moreover, as it is a government programme, the premium can be reduced to Rs 10,000, but still the budget required is Rs 1 lakh crore. Nevertheless, the government has informed that Rs 5,000-6,000 crore is needed to get the budget going in the first year and Rs 10,000-12,000 crore annually as it scales up. I can’t understand the mathematics behind it and how the government is going to roll it out.
For the medical devices industry, the budget was a disappointment. In 2016, the government had reduced the custom duty of raw materials to 2.5 per cent , but it was not done for In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD)s, which is a part of the sector. If the government really wants to ‘Make in India’, they should have reduced the custom duty of all the raw materials used in the medical devices, particularly IVDs. The government announces a lot of measures to boost local manufacturing, but it is not implemented. For example, the number of medical parks, which were announced in various states is still a non-starter as none of them are operational. The projects are delayed in various states.
How do you see India’s drug-pricing regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority’s (NPPA) move on price control on few medical devices?
NPPA and the Department of Pharmaceuticals are in discussion about categorisation of medical devices into different segments for the purpose of fixing of trade margins. But the medical devices industry is continuing to be divided on the move of rationalisation of trade margins. For me, the trade margin should be made higher. Currently, the margin of certain products from the factory price to the MRP, are 10 to 15 times higher. The common man is not aware of it and he ends up paying what the hospital charges him — be it a glove or a stent. So, rationalisation of the price is necessary or an average pricing formula should be brought in and a trade margin should be set and the list should be made public, similar to stents and knee implants.
What is your comment on the National Medical Device Policy?
National Medical Device Policy (NMDP) 2015 was drafted to boost the local medical devices industry and enable them to get cohesive, promote innovations and to safeguard medical devices industry against tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. It is still to be implemented. The government should have a separate medical devices department under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW). The medical devices cater more to the healthcare than the pharmaceutical sector. Too many governing bodies with diverse requirements and standards, viz Department of Pharmaceuticals, Bio Technology, Telecommunications, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Commerce, are a hindrance to promotion of new technology. These affect ease of doing business as the decision making becomes slow. For the industry to grow and make it a hub, we need a nodal department, which focusses on the segment. The medical devices industry is just like the automobile industry, as a lot of Research and Development (R&D) takes place. By allowing weighted tax deduction of up to 200 per cent on R&D investments for the sector will promote innovation. Currently, it is reduced to 150 per cent and further it is said to be reduced to 100 per cent.
How much was invested in the new green field project at IMT Faridabad in Haryana? Can you give us some details of the facility and which new products are manufactured in the new facility?
Poly Medicure has spent Rs 60 crore on the new green field project, another Rs 50 to 60 crore will be spent on the capacity expansion, automation and new products to be launched. Polymed produces 100 different types of medical devices, the category ranges from infusion therapy, central venous catheter, blood management system, surgery and wound drainage, anaesthesia, urology, gastroenterology and dialysis. With 98 per cent products of the renal care imported, we will soon launch miniature portable artificial kidney dialyser, which will help in continuous blood cleansing. In many hospitals to save costs, the dialyser filter is reused in patients six or seven times, which exposes them to infections such as Hepatitis B and C. Only few patients are able to afford new dialyser as it costs Rs 2500 to Rs 3000. Most of these filters are imported and they remain a financial burden to the patients. A filter developed indigenous in India will help decrease the cost and more people will be able to afford it. The Poly Medicure dialysis product package will be ranging from Rs 500 to 550, which is Rs 800 in the market. Our idea is to make more products in the import substitution. Polymed has over 100 products and every year we try to bring in at least eight new products into the market.
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