Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Dedicated courses on medical devices sector at NIPER Ahmedabad

The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) - Ahmedabad, one of the six new NIPERs established in different parts of the country, is planning to initiate courses to develop human resources to enhance the performance of medical devices industry in the country. The institute will be one of the first to introduce a dedicated course for medical devices technology, according to NIPER sources.

The institute, which is expected to commence operations in next couple of months, has identified the scope of emerging medical devices segment in the country and has plans to set up operations in three specific segments to help the industry. The identified segments are - setting up academic centres, establishing a testing facility for medical devices with testing equipments, testing models for efficacy and quality control studies and building up pre-clinical and clinical study facilities required for medical devices (class 2B and III) for the industry.The institute has recently conducted analysis on the sector to identify the prospects of medical devices industry and need for human resources.

The draft report has been submitted to the Department of Pharmaceuticals and the department is seeking feedback from the industry on the report. Based on the feedback the institute will submit its final report to the department which, in turn, is expected to offer additional funds to set up the infrastructure at Ahmedabad to support the medical devices industry, informed Dr Harish Padh, project director, NIPER-Ahmedabad and director, B V Patel Pharmaceutical Education and Research Development (PERD) Centre.