At a meeting held with medical devices manufacturers, the ministry agreed to issue no-objection certificates on a case-to-case basis for the import of special grades of SS strips for making surgical blades and scalpels, industry executives told ET. It would also give six months for the foreign suppliers of these material to get registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards, they said.
Under the new rule the ministry notified in June, materials like hot-rolled steel and ingots manufactured abroad for Indian buyers must get BIS certification. This rule covers the special grades of steel used in the manufacturing of medical devices. Since the requirement of these raw materials is small, they are not made locally.
Friday’s meeting, held at the ministry and attended by the steel secretary and managing director of Steel Authority of India (SAIL), came after ET reported medical devices manufacturers’ concerns on the latest mandate.
The meeting also decided to work on local manufacturing of these special grade steel.
“AiMeD will work with SAIL to indigenise the production of these special low-volume stainless steel raw materials-strips, tubing and wires,” said Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator of the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) and managing director of Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices. “We are very thankful to the government for being responsive and empathetic to our genuine concerns and for averting a potential supply chain and health care crisis,” he said.A notification based on Friday’s meeting is likely to be issued soon, a person in the know told ET.ET reported on Friday that India may see a shortage of surgical blades, needles, endoscopes and other medical products in the coming days, as industry executives expressed their inability to follow the rules mandated by the steel ministry for importing their raw material.Several manufacturers that ET spoke with said they have to rely on imports for certain steel pipes, tubes, steel strips, steel capillary tubes. Local manufacturing of these items is not commercially feasible for the vendors since these are required only in small quantities.
