NIPER Ahmedabad to set up centre of excellence to boost skill development in devices sector
The government of India has mandated National
Institute for Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Ahmedabad to
initiate a National
Centre for Medical Devices (NCMD) for development of skilled
manpower in the medical device industry. This would involve collaborative
inputs from the industry to help build innovation ecosystem and develop human
resources for the industry along with a testing infrastructure at NIPER. This
would also complement the first upcoming medical device testing lab of the country at
Vadodara in Gujarat by the end of this year.
The department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) for
the last one year has actively engaged both the NIPERs and the pharma industry
to build partnership in areas of education, research and development.
Says Dr Kiran Kalia, director, NIPER,
Ahmedabad, “As a part of the government initiative to develop an ecosystem for
development of medical devices sector in the country, NIPER Ahmedabad has
recently signed two MoUs with leading medical devices manufacturers at
Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. This would go a long way to further collaborate
with the industry.”
As per official sources, a total of 17 MoUs
have been signed recently between seven NIPERs and pharma industry for academia
industry linkages recently. Out of the total of 45 MoUs exchanged between
central institutions, 17 are under pharmaceuticals sector alone. Academia-industry
linkage is a significant development as one of the critical factors
in building innovation ecosystem for medical devices industry.
High quality and skilled manpower is one of
the critical requirements in the pharma sector today. This has gained further
impetus as government of India is planning to expand NIPERs across the country
to nurture manpower and hence boost domestic manufacturing of medical devices
in the country. More than 70 per cent of medical devices are imported as of
today which has impacted the development of the domestic industry.
Indian domestic pharma market is around Rs. 1
lakh crore and its analysis suggests that patent medicines constitute less than
1 per cent share illustrating poor accessibility and availability of latest
innovative medicines in the face of growing non-communicable diseases like
cancer because of affordability. This issue reiterates the urgency for India to
have paradigm shift in its strategy to expand its leadership in drug discovery
and innovation after post-WTO, TRIPS regime.
DoP has identified that academia-industry
linkage as a basic requirement for translating research into development
(commercialisation) and innovation; and also to fix accountability among the
educational institutions. Further in India, the research and development in pharmaceuticals
sector is spread across a number of ministries and departments viz., department
of biotechnology, department of science and technology, department of
scientific and industrial research, health systems research (ICMR) and
department of pharmaceuticals.
Source: http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=93669&sid=1
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