New Delhi : Even though the government had way back in 2017 announced preference to Make-in India products under public procurement, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has identified around 500 medical devices for which there is no data on the local manufacturers available even after its attempt to collect data from the domestic manufacturers association.
If no information is received till the end of December, the DoP will further proceed with the action, arriving that the local manufacturers are not available for these medical devices. This comes at a time when there has been a huge push towards Make in India projects and domestic industries have been demanding more preference to the local manufacturers.
For another 237 products it was able to collate data from the domestic medical devices manufacturing associations.
The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has issued the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017, on September 16, 2020, following which the DoP had issued guidelines on February 16, 2021 for implementation of the Order related to procurement of goods and services in medical devices.
The DoP received various representations from the procuring agencies under the Government of India with regard to non-availability of Class I and Class II suppliers for identified medical devices or equipment. An exercise was done by the Department to ascertain the local manufacturers from different sources for these identified medical devices and equipment, including from the domestic manufacturers association.
“However, recognising that the manufacturers of the identified medical devices may be spread across the country and may not be member of any manufacturers Association and also to give a reasonable opportunity, the said medical devices/equipment, as received from the procurement agencies are being put in public domain to collect details of local manufacturers,” said a latest public notice issued by the DoP.
It has sought details including name of the manufacturing entity, address of registered office and manufacturing location, contact details, email ID and phone numbers, local content percentage of the medical devices, specifications of the medical device equipment and whether it is registered with the government e-Marketplace portal, for smooth implementation of the public procurement policy which gives preference to domestic manufacturers with sufficient local content.
If no information is received in the email-ID provided by the Department latest by December 31, 2021, further action will be taken, arriving that local manufacturers are not available for these medical devices/equipment.
For details of the specifications of the medical devices or equipment in the list, the manufacturer may contact agencies like Central Medical Service Society of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Employees State Insurance Corporation of Ministry of Labour, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Procuring agencies of Ministry of Railways, Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services and HLL Infra Tech Services Ltd of Ministry of Health.
The list 1 of 128 medical devices and equipment for which public procurement agencies were not able to identify local manufacturers include intra-aortic balloon pump, video assisted thoracic surgery and minimally invasive cardiac surgery instrument set, flow track cardiac out monitoring device, ENT Coblator system and standard set of wands, among others. The list 2 of 365 medical devices and equipment include 4D echocardiography, ambulatory blood pressure monitor continuous glucose monitoring system, animal simulator for pharmacology, antibiotic zone reader, blood bank management system using RFID technology, among others. The List 1 was based on details furnished by the procuring agencies till November, 2021 and the List 2 was based on further details submitted subsequently.
