A group of members from AmCham Medical Devices Committee and the AdvaMed India Working Group met with Mr. Patrick Santillo, Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, U.S. Embassy and his staff on 9th December. Industry briefed him on the regulatory environment for medical devices in India and the challenges faced by the industry. Members also took the opportunity to highlight some of the other broad issues of the industry like pricing, protectionist policy and increase of import duty to Mr. Santillo.

Mr. Santillo informed everyone that the embassy was expecting a change in administration and also trying to integrate its regional offices into various policy discussions. He also assured that the healthcare sector was a priority sector for the embassy in 2017. He found the briefing session very helpful and suggested industry to formulate a strategy map and meet again in January 2017.

The following members represented in the meeting – Mr. Vibhav Garg, Boston Scientific, Ms. Sumati Randeo, Abbott, Mr. Sudhakar Mairpady, Philips, Mr. Nishith Desai, Medtronic, Ms. Latika Vats, Terumo, and Mr. Sharad Shukla, Johnson & Johnson. From AmCham, Mr. Gaurav Mendiratta attended the meeting.