“Endevour of the Government is to provide affordable quality healthcare for all and boost indigenous pharma sector through ‘Make in India’. In this direction, Cabinet has given approval for 100 % FDI under automatic route for manufacturing of medical devices”, said Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Statistics & Programme Implementation, Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda while addressing the media during the Curtain Raiser Press Conference for India Pharma 2019 & India Medical Device 2019, here today.The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, along with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), is organising the 4th International Conference on Pharmaceutical & Medical Device sector on 18th – 19th February, 2019 in Bengaluru. The theme for India Pharma 2019 is ‘Enabling Quality Affordable Healthcare’ and that of India Medical Device 2019 is ‘Med-Tech India: Gearing up for Ayushman Bharat’. Shri Gowda will inaugurate the two-day event, which is India’s biggest Global Conference on Pharma Industry and Medical Devices, and address the distinguished gathering in the presence of Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya.
During the Curtain Raiser, Shri Gowda said that the flagship event would bring key stakeholders of the pharma and medical devices sectors under one roof and provide an opportunity to discuss Government policy and challenges facing the Industry. Government is striving to make the processes in the sector as transparent and easy as possible, he added.Shri Mansukh Mandaviya informed the gathering that the 4th edition of the event will have brainstorming sessions on various aspects of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Device sector and in its 4th edition the event will help in resolving the bottlenecks of growth in the sectors. He invited the industry, media and the healthcare fraternity to participate in a big way at the event.Talking on the rationale of holding the annual conference, Secretary (Pharmaceuticals), Shri J.P. Prakash said that the event is held annually to get new and innovative ideas from all stakeholders in the conference. This helps the department to prepare the annual action plan for the Pharma and Medical Device Sectors. During the Conference, the annual action taken report on the issues raised at the last edition of the event, along with new areas of concern, will be discussed, he added.In the main event in Bengaluru, over 150 CEOs of the global pharma and medical device industry are expected to participate. International Drug Regulators from 15 countries have been invited to the event for interaction with Indian Drug Regulators and Industry Regulatory Officers. Ambassadors & Commercial Counsellors of more than 50 countries have been invited for close interaction with Government of India and participating Industry.
Thematic sessions will be held on areas of Artificial Intelligence in Pharma, Import Export issues, Biologicals, Biopharmaceuticals and New Chemical Entities (NCEs) for the Pharmaceutical Sector. For the Medical Devices Sector, thematic sessions will be held on Diagnostics Ecosystem, Ease of Doing Business and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Framework. Technical workshop by World Health Organization will help in addressing key challenges before the industry and will also provide tremendous business linkages to the participating companies.The annual India Pharma & Medical Device Awards will be conferred by Department of Pharmaceuticals for various categories including India Pharma Leader Award, Innovation of Year Award, Bulk Drug Company of the Year Award and Medical Device Company of the Year Award.Other dignitaries present on the occasion today included JS (Pharmaceuticals), Shri Navdeep Rinwa and Shri Rajneesh Tingal; Ms. Shubhra Singh, Chairperson, NPPA; Dr. S. Eswara Reddy, DCGI; and Shri Dilip Chenoy, SG, FICCI.