New Delhi, Nov 21 (UNI) Urging need for promoting industry and academia collaboration for developing affordable medical products, Health Minister J P Nadda on Tuesday said India was committed to achieving public health goal in all spectrum of lives.

Speaking at the ‘1st World Conference on Access to Medical Products and International Laws for Trade and Health in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, here, Mr Nadda underlined, “India is deeply committed nationally and globally to achieving all public health goals and also focusing on developing India as a hub for affordable medical devices.”

Highlighting the importance of transparency between regulatory authorities and pharma sector, the Minister said that the coordination between the National Regulatory Authorities and pharmaceutical sector will enable launch and registration of new health technologies.

He further said that the dialogue on role of competition in competitive pricing and discussion on related WTO agreements influencing health should lead to a larger umbrella of suggested policy options for the government.

Further, Mr Nadda stated that the 2015 National Medical Device Policy will enable local manufacture in the multiproduct, multidisciplinary industry.

“In India, nearly 150 thousand orthopaedic knee procedures are done every day. More investments and more players in the medical devices sector will lead to lowering down of prices and access to medical products as most of the governments are sensitive to access and pricing of medical products,” he added.

Addressing the conference via video link, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare said that the research and development in public health should focus on two main aspects.

To enable safe, effective and quality medical products for the diseases and rolling out the innovations and inventions along with the learning’s from the field to the people, he said.

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