Medical devices park common facilities approved

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has approved the medical devices park projects in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. They are approved with the financial assistance of Rs. 100 crore each, which are earmarked for developing common infrastructure facilities in the medical devices parks. During the month of February, the Janaushadhi centers have helped people to save around Rs. 377 crore by availing medicines at an affordable rate, said the Department in its latest report.

The Scheme Steering Committee of the  Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), in its recent meeting, has accorded its final approval to the development of common facilities in the medical devices parks in the two states. The Department conveyed the same to these States through a letter on February 10, 2022, the monthly summary report of the Department asserted.

According to it, both the States will be receiving financial assistance of Rs. 100 crore each for the development of Common Infrastructure Facilities in two medical devices parks to be developed by the State governments.

It received proposals from a total of 16 States and Union Territories, namely Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand under this scheme for Promotion of Medical Devices Parks.

After evaluation of the proposals, the Scheme Steering Committee, in the meeting held on September 14, 2021, accorded its in-principle approval and conveyed it to the four States, that is, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh- through an Office Memorandum on September 24, 2021.

The Union Cabinet approved the Scheme for Promotion of Medical Devices Parks on March 20, 2020. It also issued the operational guidelines of the scheme on July 27, 2020, and the last date for accepting the proposals from the States and union territories was October 15, 2020. Under the scheme, the union government will provide a one-time grant-in-aid of a maximum of Rs. I00 crore for creating common infrastructure facilities in selected medical device parks.

These parks will provide standard testing and laboratory facilities in one place and thus significantly reduce the manufacturing cost and help create a robust ecosystem for manufacturing medical devices in the country. The total financial outlay of the said scheme is Rs. 400 crores. IFCI Ltd is to be the Project Management Agency (PMA) for the scheme to assist the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP).

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has already received an overcharged amount of Rs. 3.42 crore in February. The inflow of FDI during the month was Rs. 565.53 crore. The FDI into the sector has been growing in the last two years, mainly to address the Covid-19 related demands. The  Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) received two more FDI proposals during the same month.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), the union has started 19 more Janaushadhi Kendras during the month of February, taking the total number of centers to 8,689 as of February 28, 2022. The centers sold medicines for Rs. 62.78 crores during the month, which saved around Rs. 377 crore to the people. The product basket as of February 28 had 1616 medicines and 250 surgical devices. It has also sold Rs.90 lakh worth of Suvidha sanitary napkins, priced at Re. 1 per napkin.

The  Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has also announced some vacancies, including the post of Director for NIPERs at Raebareli and Ahmedabad; the post of a director or deputy secretary, the post of undersecretary and principal private secretary in the Department itself, and some vacancies in the public sector undertakings.