Parliamentary panel recommends expanding Centres of Excellence to reduce treatment costs

The Committee highlighted the highly promising outcomes of the MedTech Mitra platform, which has already mentored over 400 innovators, and the establishment of CoEs across seven IITs, yielding 43 indigenous medical technologies and 16 start-ups.

Centres of Excellences

The Committee believed that achieving self-reliance in medical technology is the most sustainable pathway to significantly lower the cost of critical treatments, such as the drastically reduced prices already achieved for paediatric formulations like isotretinoin and PREVALL. Hence, it recommended Centres of Excellence and start-ups.

The Committee also recommended that the Government should establish a dedicated procurement quota within national health programs for indigenously developed, validated technologies to guarantee market access for start-ups and MSMEs navigating the “valleys of death” with a hope to cross over.

Health Technology Assessment in India

The submission of the Department of Health Research (DHR) highlighted the pivotal role of the Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) in providing rigorous, evidence-based recommendations on the cost-effectiveness and safety of health interventions. Given the imperative to optimize government spending and reduce the out-of-pocket burden on citizens, the Committee was of the view that systematic evaluations must become the bedrock of all public healthcare expenditure.

The Committee further recommended that HTAIn clearance be made a mandatory prerequisite for the inclusion of any new diagnostic tool, medical device, vaccine, or therapeutic procedure into the procurement lists of the National Health Mission and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). The Committee, further, recommended the establishment of state-level HTA nodes to ensure that cost-effectiveness thresholds are tailored to regional health priorities and economic realities to expand the length and breadth of health schemes of the programmes to the last mile.

Medical Innovations Development Acceleration Council with MedTech

The proposed Medical Innovations Development Acceleration Council (MIDAC) represents a critical intervention for de-risking biomedical research in areas that lack lucrative commercial incentives but possess immense public health importance. Furthermore, the Model Rural Health Research Units (MRHRUs) and Tribal Health Research Network are essential for ensuring that innovations reach the most vulnerable populations, especially rural, hilly, and tribal regions.

The Committee recommended the immediate operationalization and robust capitalisation of MIDAC to foster public-private partnerships specifically targeting neglected tropical diseases and regional outbreaks. The Committee believed in linking MRHRUs directly with the MedTech Mitra ecosystem, ensuring that new point-of-care diagnostics (such as the AI-enabled handheld X-ray devices and CRISPR-CAS kits) are field-tested and deployed directly in underserved rural and tribal corridors.

Fast-track technology within Patent Mitra

The introduction of the Patent Mitra initiative in March 2025 is a commendable step, having already facilitated 24 patent applications and the successful transfer of one technology to the industry. The Committee was of the view that a robust intellectual property framework is only effective if it culminates in the rapid commercialization and deployment of affordable health solutions for all & irrespective of gender.

The Committee, therefore, recommended creating a fast-track technology transfer mechanism within Patent Mitra that actively matches patent-holders with public sector undertakings (PSUs) and established private manufacturers. The Committee also advised providing targeted financial subsidies or tax incentives to private sector entities that successfully license and mass-produce technologies protected under the Patent Mitra and CoE frameworks and intended to ensure accessibility and affordability of healthcare facilities.