By IANS
New Delhi : The government will bring in a new law to regulate the Rs.120 billion medical devices market in the country and curb the dumping of second hand equipment in India.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal Friday said: “We are going to come up with a new legislation to enforce uniform and effective standards throughout the country.”
“This will help India from getting second hand medical equipment from other countries. Since 85 percent of medical equipments are imported in the country, some mechanism should be in place to check the quality of equipment coming to the country.
“For instance, there have been complaints that substandard and rejected medical devices from the US are being sold in India.
“This will also ensure that substandard devices are not exported, especially to developing countries, which do not have medical devices regulations in place,” the minister told reporters.
Sibal said the medical devices market in the country is worth Rs.120 billion and growing by 12 to 15 percent per annum.
He said the draft bill had already been prepared and would be tabled in the parliament in the near future.
The minister said the bill proposed a regulatory authority that would seek to establish and maintain a national system of certification relating to quality, safety, efficacy and availability of medical devices.