India’s New Guidelines Will Ultimately Benefit Local Players

India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has recently proposed a new set of guidelines to limit the proportion of medical devices publicly sourced from foreign manufacturers. The proposed guidelines will benefit the local players in the long run, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. 
 
Individually there are around 5,000 different kinds of medical devices and it is not practical to prescribe the local content and percentage of preference in domestic procurement for each medical device. Hence for the time being, the DoP has prescribed the following percentages of minimum local content in domestic medical devices for public procurement for the various categories of medical devices.
 
The latest move, which follows the price caps set in 2017 on coronary stent and knee replacement implant products, aims to make healthcare more accessible and affordable to Indian patients, while also promoting local business and boosting the economy. 
 
Jennifer Ryan, senior medical devices analyst at GlobalData, said, “Domestic players in India are likely to see increased demand as a result of the new initiatives, and need to adjust manufacturing capabilities to keep up with market requirements. At present, there is a distinct lack of resources to assist local device manufacturers in keeping up with the new standards.” 
 
Concerns are also present for foreign players, who have traditionally seen emerging markets such as India as an area of high growth. In order to remain competitive in the evolving market landscape, foreign companies will need to re-evaluate their strategies. 
 
Ryan added, “One potential solution to the domestic cap guideline would be for foreign players to acquire a local player and distribute products through the acquired company. However, this is likely a temporary solution. Similar practices in China have led to a reclassification of acquired companies as foreign in some provincial tender districts, rather than domestic.” 
 
In response to the cap set on coronary stent price, several large multinationals including Medtronic and Abbott applied to remove their stents from the Indian market. It is a matter of time before an exit strategy is reached, after which Indian patients may lose access to novel technologies.
 
Ryan added, “As the general population in India continues to age, access to advanced medical devices will become more important than ever. The proposed guidelines will benefit the local market in the long run by increasing patient access to needed healthcare. In the short term, though, the process looks to be bumpy, and may even cost patients access to advanced technology.”

Click here to read more about the guidelines and India’s changing MDR.