The government has constituted an expert committee to submit recommendations for the manufacture of medical devices and equipment by State-owned enterprises.
This follows an interaction by Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan with experts representing various institutions that develop and manufacture medical equipment. The expert committee will look into the possibility of mass manufacture of items such as ventilators and baggage disinfection scanners for the present campaign against COVID-19 as well as in the long term.
Representatives of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), HLL Lifecare and other institutions informed the government that they were ready to join hands with public sector units for the initiative. The meeting decided to equip the Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals for large scale manufacture of generic drugs.
CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Director A. Ajayaghosh, VSSC Director S. Somanath, Group Director of NPOL Sameer Abdul Azeez, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Viotechnology scientist Iyep Joseph, Director of HLL Lifecare E.A. Subramanian, and managing directors of public sector KSDP, Keltron, Kerala Electricals and Allied Engineering Limited and Steel and Industrial Forgings participated in the meeting. Principal Secretary of Industries K. Elangovan and senior officials were present.
