India and Japan to intensify cooperation in medical device regulations

At 2nd Japan – India Medical Products Regulation Symposium, deliberations took place on development of medical devices regulation, third party medical certifications system, quality standards and GMP system in countries

At the recently held 2nd Japan – India Medical Products Regulation Symposium, at Nihonbashi Life Science Building, Tokyo, the two countries announced to intensify their joint cooperation for the development of a world class medical devices regulatory eco-system in India which will facilitate and expedite building up of a world class medical device industry in India. The Indian medical device industry also invited their Japanese counterparts to come and invest in India and support the ‘Make in India’ programme. The enhanced cooperation is also a firm step towards making Indian devices globally competitive and strengthening domestic capacity to take on international competition.

Top government and industry representatives from both counties deliberated on ways to enhance cooperation in medical device and pharma sector. Host of the day-long conference was Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Government of Japan and Japanese Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Agency while support was provided by Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Japan Federation of Medical Devices Association, Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Associations of Japan and Osaka Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.

The Indian side was represented by topmost officials from Ministry of Health, Family and Welfare, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, members from Ficci, Pharmexcil, AiMeD and top representatives from Indian medical devices industry.

Deliberations took place on important topics such as development of medical devices regulation, third party medical certifications system, quality standards and GMP system in countries, strategies and challenges for global drug development etc.

“We are happy the way cooperation between a global leader in medical devices and an aspiring leader in this sector progressed during the conference. We will see benefits of these deliberations in coming months which will help Indian medical device sector become globally competitive while we will also see increased investment by Japanese investors in Make in India programme,” said Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMeD, who was one of the invitee to this high profile conference and made a presentation on Indian Industry preparedness for the Medical Devices Rules and changing ecosystem for enabling manufacturing in India.

Nath also added that increased cooperation between India and Japan in medical device sector will also help capacity building on export front and increased capability to take on imports, especially from some neighbouring destinations who primarily play on price quotient.