Industry Body Awaits Suspension Of New Drugs & Medical Device Bill In Parliament

Recently in a letter written to the Union Health Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya on the new Drugs & Medical Devices Act 2023, Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMED conveyed the industry's utter shock on seeing the bill being listed to be presented in the parliament for passage without enough discussions or deliberations on the final draft which the industry claims it did not receive from the Ministry after it took suggestions from the industry.   

After the letter, Mandaviya communicated with the Industry body and assured them of enough discussions on the bill. Last Thursday Nath in a statement said, "We are thankful to the Honourable Health Minister for meeting us and for his assurances to have the MoH&FW & CDSCO team look into our concerns as he was surprised that the Bill had not been discussed adequately with us."

Nath said that the Health Minister assured him that regulations are not being put up to derail the Make in India efforts of AiMeDs members and once the industry body studies the final draft they should be able to share their concerns with the Health Ministry. 

"Our biggest concerns were the need to have a separate law and not a separate Chapter under the Drugs law as that was what was assured earlier to us in 2016 by the MoH&FW team present then and this was in line with Parliament Committee recommendations considering the huge potential of the industry and separate laws by other progressive nations - EU , Canada, Japan , Brazil & even Saudi Arabia," 

Nath said he now awaits suspension of the Bill in Parliament and initiation of public discussions on the Bill and on their concerns if India aspires to be the leading manufacturer in the world for Medical Devices.