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Cost Advantage Of Imported Medical Devices
Against Domestic Players Rose By 20% Last Year: AIMED
The cost advantage of the medical devices imported from
overseas as against the Indian manufacturers has increased up to 20 per cent in
the last one year owing to various fiscal policies and, affecting both the
Indian medical devices manufacturers and the consumers, says Association of
Indian Medical Devices Industry (AIMED), an umbrella organisation of the
domestic medical devices industry in the country.
The imported medical devices, which caters to the 60 to 70
per cent of the Indian market, has received a competitive edge due to the
customs duty reduction of 7.5 per cent on imports and 10 per cent cost advantage
through difference in the exchange rates. Further, the 2.8 per cent excise duty
imposed on the Indian manufacturers has also benefited the importers, making
their cost advantage to 20 per cent in a single year, said Rajiv Nath, forum
coordinator, AIMED.
Adversely hit by these factors and the increasing competition
from the imported products, several of the Indian companies are now resorting to
a strategy where they would import the products from countries like China, pack
and sterilise in their facilities and sell the products.
"The fiscal policies has provided an additional advantage to
the importers of medical devices. It has affected the industry across the board
from companies manufacturing basic devices like syringe and needles, hot-water
bottles and mercury thermometers to high end devices," said Nath.
The only area where the Indian manufacturers received a
relief in the last Union Budget was the production of orghopeadic implants, for
which the government has reduced the duty for steel, the raw material for the
products, to the minimum level, that is five per cent. However, currently almost
70 per cent of the orthopedic implants are imported to the Indian market, he
added.
The importers also enjoy the advantage of cutting cost of
manufacturing as many of the products owned by major companies are manufactured
in countries like China, where the cost of manufacturing is comparatively very
less. The current packaging norms in India does not insist on printing the
details of manufacturing sites on medical devices and this has created a
misconception among the consumers that these products are manufactured in
developed countries.
Moreover, the advantages for the importers are not passed on
any relief to the consumers, since the maximum retail price for the products
remain high for the imported products, he added. Despite the rules suggesting
logical price control on medical device products, the imported devices are sold
in a higher prices and the association has been raising its voice against such
practices in the past, he added.
The gaps left unaddressed in regulating the medical devices
segment, along with such fiscal policies are the major threat to the Indian
medical devices industry, which otherwise, has a Rs 15,000 crore domestic market
kept open for the industry in India, said Nath.
(Ref: The Chronicle Pharmabiz, dated Sept.2, 2010)
DSM, Dupont form JV In Surgical Biomedical
Materials
Royal DSM N.V., the global life sciences and materials
sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, and Dupont announce an
agreement to form a joint venture to develop, manufacture and commercialize
advanced surgical biomedical materials, pending European Union regulatory
approval. The joint venture will be named Actamax Surgical Materials LLC. Under
the joint venture agreement, DSM and Dupont will each share a 50 per cent
interest.
The joint venture will address the market for surgical
sealants, adhesion barriers and tissue adhesives. This is a large and
underserved market of over 100 million annual surgical procedures worldwide. The
outcome of many surgical procedures could be positively impacted using
next-generation materials under development by the joint venture.
Actamax surgical Materials LLC will build a comprehensive
biomedical product portfolio based on several patent-protected biodegradable
hydrogel technologies. The early technology development was completed utilizing
Dupont materials science and biotechnology capabilities. Commercialization will
rely on the medical polymer processing and manufacturing capabilities of DSM.
(Ref: The Chronicle Pharmabiz, September 30, 2010)
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