Pakistan’s leading healthcare experts, biomedical engineers, regulators and industry leaders on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious ‘Vision 2030’ initiative aimed at ensuring local manufacture of at least 30 per cent of the medical devices required in the country by 2030, reducing dependence on imports and strengthening national health care security.
The announcement came during the Pakistan Medical Devices Manufacturing Summit organised by the Saman-e-Shifa Foundation in collaboration with Salim Habib University and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) at the varsity.
During the event, the Saman-e-Shifa Foundation donated locally manufactured ICU ventilators, multipara patient monitors and syringe pumps to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD). The equipment was formally handed over to NICVD Executive Director Prof Tahir Saghir as a demonstration of Pakistan’s growing capacity to manufacture high quality medical devices.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was also signed between the Saman-e-Shifa Foundation and Institute of Pakistan Medical Device Industry (IPMDI), while another agreement was signed between Salim Habib University and IPMDI to promote indigenous manufacturing, research collaboration and innovation in Pakistan’s medical device sector.
Speaking at the summit, orthopaedic surgeon and Saman-e-Shifa Foundation Chairman Prof Dr Syed Shahid Noor said Pakistan could no longer afford to remain dependent on imported medical technologies, particularly after recent global crises that had exposed vulnerabilities in the health care supply chain.
“Self-reliance in health care is no longer a choice, it is a necessity for national survival and health security,” he said, adding that Pakistan spent billions of rupees annually on importing medical devices that could be manufactured locally with the right investment, policy support and research ecosystem.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic had demonstrated how countries dependent on imported medical supplies faced severe shortages of ventilators, syringes and other lifesaving equipment when global supply chains collapsed.
The summit brought together policymakers, healthcare professionals, medical device manufacturers, academics, researchers and entrepreneurs to discuss the future of Pakistan’s medical device ecosystem, local manufacturing capabilities, biomedical engineering and regulatory reforms.
In a major development, participants at the summit resolved to establish a Rs1 billion research and development fund to support indigenous medical device manufacturing and technology development in Pakistan.
The participants also inaugurated the Centre of Medical Device Innovation and Research and launched what the organisers described as Pakistan’s first dedicated medical device manufacturing platform.
A panel discussion titled ‘Quality Medical Device Manufacturing in Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities’ was also held on the occasion moderated by Syed Arif Shah, CEO of Saman-e-Shifa Foundation.
The panellists included Healthcare Devices Association of Pakistan (HDAP) Chairman Syed Omar Ahmed, PharmEvo CEO Jamshed Ahmed, Abbas Ali of Hakimi MedTech, Dr Fouzia Sadiq of Medical Alsons Technologies, Prof Dr Farhan Essa Abdullah Abedin of Dr Essa Laboratory and Salim Habib University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Syed Irfan Hyder.
They stressed the need for stronger industry academia partnerships, investment in biomedical engineering and research, skilled workforce development and implementation of international quality standards in Pakistan’s health care manufacturing sector.
They maintained that local manufacturing of medical devices would improve affordability and accessibility of health care technologies, reduce import dependence and help Pakistan emerge as a regional hub for quality medical device manufacturing in the coming years.
