Even with all its transformative qualities, technology’s integrity has been questioned time and again. Critics continue to fixate on its shortcomings, and of course, expand disproportionately on its fails. It has been the case right from the get go. However, despite all the negative noise around it, technology hasn’t stopped growing for a second. Instead, it has only forayed into newer lanes, finding different pathways through which it can make a difference in our lives. A fitting example of this would be what transpired in the medical sector. By making huge strides forward across all the imaginable elements of healthcare, technology has proved its doubters wrong in quite a fashion. Today, the sector heavily relies on tech-driven devices for carrying out the most basic of tasks. Having an advanced setup at their disposal doesn’t only make the job easier for medical professionals, but it also enables them to offer a fresh beacon of hope to the patients. A lot of treatments we have today saw the light purely because of technology. Nevertheless, technology just being there is far from enough. What a successful healthcare tool needs is an environment in which it can be understood, and inevitably, effectively used. That’s precisely what an organization like FDA has always strived to achieve.
In 2018, FDA set a goal to make U.S. the most important market for medical devices. They wanted to be the first one in the queue, determined to provide the patients in U.S. with “first access to high-quality, safe and effective medical devices of public health importance.”
It wasn’t just another long-term ‘aspiration’. FDA was chasing this goal aggressively, and it showed up quite evidently in its actions. As a way of giving itself a strong enough push to get the ball rolling, FDA zeroed upon having approximately 50% of manufacturers target U.S. market first and foremost. It must be noted that, in order to accelerate their progression towards this goal, FDA did not ease up their criterion in any manner whatsoever. Instead, the agency’s pitch to these manufacturers was the exposure that the U.S. market can offer to their devices, and as per the reports, it seems like that pretty much did the job.
According to a survey conducted this year, a sizeable majority of the manufacturers now treat U.S. as the primary market for their devices. FDA had clocked a staggering 62% of them already doing the same in 2019. The figure has only been on an upwards trajectory since then.
