Hyderabad-based startups in the medical devices sector are happy with the National Medical Devices Policy 2023 announced by the Indian government. This policy will help the sector grow in an organized way and meet public health objectives. The startups hope that issues related to manufacturing, assembling, and marketing of devices will be addressed. The policy will also ease regulatory hurdles with the single window clearance system, allowing for more R&D and innovation. The startups also believe that if the policy is implemented effectively, they will have access to better and skilled human resources for manufacturing.
The policy covers six broad areas of policy intervention such as facilitating R&D and Innovation, human resources development, and regulatory streamlining. It also establishes Centers of Excellence (CoE) in academic and research institutions, which can lead to collaboration with medical devices startups in the future. The policy addresses constraining factors for medical devices startups such as manufacturing, hardware design, assembling, marketing awareness, and expanding distribution chains across various cities in India.
Startups like Phezee, which make physiotherapy devices for patients with neurological disorders, believe that the policy’s focus on indigenous R&D and manufacturing gives confidence to founders of medtech startups. The regulatory mechanism can be accelerated, helping startups to market their products swiftly. Hyderabad has a rich and growing ecosystem of medtech and healthtech startups. If subsidies are provided on lands for setting up manufacturing plants, it can be a great boon for emerging startups.
The medical devices sector in India is a sunrise sector that is growing fast. Its market size is estimated to be $11 billion (approx Rs 90,000 crore) in 2020, and its share in the global medical device market is estimated to be 1.5%.
