This session was structured as a panel discussion. Ajit Rangnekar, Director General, Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH), India, Rajiv Nath, Joint Managing Director, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd, Founder and forum coordinator, AiMeD, India, Prof S Venkataramanaiah, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, India. Alap Gandhi, Head Medical Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, India, Dr. Bhupesh Sharma, Manager, Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, India, Dr. Dev Raj Jindal, Lead – mHealth Technologies, PHFI, India, Dr. Sanjay Sharma, Founder director, APTA healthcare advisers, India, Nidhi Gani, Regulatory affairs specialist, Smith & Nephew, USA
Ajit Rangnekar emphasized one issue of major concern was the lack of manufacturing medical devices in India, to help overcome the problem, there was a need for new and stronger partnerships and alliances as 70% of medical devices are imported which has a vast area of opportunities for collaborations of stakeholders and we are very tiny in the global market.
He believed that India can make -cheaper -smaller -less Complex medical devices in comparison to global products in the market. Challenge is how do we react to the market.
Two big issues underlay in Healthcare
-Data
-Drug Discovery
We know what is the problem but from where the problem is coming from ? for the answer to the above challenge we would require to analyze and improve the data analytics in healthcare.
In summing up the conclusions of the session, Professor Venkat noted the importance of collaborative innovation is the need of the hour and partnership model in Healthcare and highlighted the significance in scaling up the inventions. While there was still room for further progress in the area, there appeared to be a strong need to start addressing emerging issues, in particular, those concerning regulatory board, scalable innovations, data analytics, and deprived the need of combination therapy of Big data and AI. Apart from the recent regulation for medical devices, we also need an enabling ecosystem for high-end manufacturing in the country.
Q&A session
● Invention and innovation difference?
The scalable invention is innovation; collaborative innovation is the need of the hour and partnership model in Healthcare
● No separate regulatory board for medical devices
Big data and AI – combination therapy is required
● Will ‘AYUSHMAN BHARAT’ drive to innovation – open question by Rajiv Nath to the audience.
