How can multilateral platforms like BRICS be leveraged for affordable and accessible medical technology innovation in the Global South?

WHO's Global Atlas of Medical Devices links weak device availability directly to unmet universal health coverage and SDG-3 targets, with most developing countries import-dependent for diagnostics and critical-care equipment [5]. BRICS, combining large patient populations, manufacturing depth and public research systems, offers a practical platform to convert this shared deficit into shared innovation capacity.

Pooling research and co-development

• The BRICS STI Framework Programme (endorsed 2015) has funded around 100 multilateral projects networking some 300 research organisations, showing that consortium-based funding across member states already works [3].
• The BRICS BioDesign Programme, launched by the Principal Scientific Adviser with AMTZ, FICCI and the S&T Clusters, applies the need-to-prototype-to-deployment "BioDesign" method across member countries [2].

Building affordable manufacturing capacity

• Dedicated parks such as the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, Visakhapatnam provide shared testing and certification facilities that cut prototyping costs for start-ups [1][2].
• India's National Medical Devices Policy, 2023 targets access, affordability, quality and innovation through six strategy pillars — a template BRICS partners can mirror to build complementary value chains [4].

Institutional and regulatory enablers

• Region-based S&T Clusters linking academia, industry, government and start-ups offer a replicable model for cross-border innovation networks [1].
• Industry chambers like FICCI bridge research output and commercialisation, while a Memorandum of Agreement gives partner institutions a stable governance base [2].

Constraints

• Divergent device regulations, uneven R&D spending and intellectual-property disagreements among members slow joint commercialisation; without harmonised standards and pooled procurement, co-developed devices may not reach markets at scale [5].

BRICS cooperation succeeds where it moves beyond declarations to institutional anchors — funded calls, shared facilities and co-owned platforms. Sequencing regulatory convergence and joint financing alongside the BioDesign network would let frugal innovation travel across the Global South. Anchored in South-South solidarity and the SDG commitment to universal health coverage, such platforms can make affordable medical technology a shared public good rather than an import.