NEW DELHI: Royal Philips recently launched its fifth medical equipment product that is made in India for exports.
The MobileDiagnost Opto, a digital x-ray system, comes from a range of products developed by Philips’ Healthcare Innovation Centre (HIC), an India-based R&D unit.
Established four years ago to develop homegrown healthcare products, the HIC is based in Pune and operates R&D facilities in Pimpri and Chakhan. HIC head Rekha Ranganathan said the products are “part of our strategy of focusing our R&D work for both local-for-local use and for global markets. At present, HIC has capacity to manufacture 100 units per month of any of these. HIC is still in a nascent stage and we intend to roll out some more products from here,” he told the Business St`andard.
HIC also produces “fixed” imaging equipment for minimally invasive treatment of chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases, according to the news report. Currently, the center has about 400 employees and shipped hundreds of systems to 90 countries in 2014. According to Ranganathan, in just two years, the local R&D unit has doubled unit growth, launched global products, filed multiple patents, and received significant investments in developing medical equipment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently described India’s medtech sector as “underinvested” and “import-driven.” Initiatives like Philips’ HIC seek to change the status quo in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new “Made in India” campaign.
In his Indian Independence Day address last year, Modi said, “We should dream of ‘Made in India’ products across the world. We need to encourage the manufacturing sector…. We should strive to be a nation that doesn’t import, but exports.”
According to the Business Standard, Sameer Garde, Philips president for South Asia, said that medical devices and equipment market in India was pegged at Rs 30,000 crore ($4.8 billion) and 75 to 80 percent of the products were imported. “We want to bring down these numbers and HIC will play a crucial role,” he said “The products manufactured at HIC grew 24 per cent year-on-year. We expect HIC to grow faster than in 2014.”
Government regulatory bodies in India have recently revamped policies on imports and exports in the medtech sector. The changes aim to reduce irregular business practices and encourage local and foreign manufacturers to invest, develop, and make products in India for the global market.
Garde recently said in a separate interview that India has great potential for growth for device manufacturers. He said that a huge market like India is crucial to Philips overall plans in the coming years as it pivots to healthcare.
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