An official from MediVed Innovation Private Limited (MediVed) said that India is capable in terms of making complex and low-to-medium value medical equipments, Press Trust of India reported. The country has strong research and development, and engineering talent base and the ability to offer equipments at costs lower than those in the western markets.
While China scored better in terms of disposable devices needing higher volumes like syringes, India held a better potential in terms of complex devices, said Dinesh Puri, chief executive officer, MediVed at a seminar on ‘Medical Devices-New Technology and Emerging Markets’.
Puri said India by leveraging its talent pool and other factors, offer devices at one third or one fourth the cost in western markets. “Western markets are driven by a different business model’’; he said. The western markets are governed by insurance players who are the main cost bearers of health care delivery. Patients therefore are governed by a belief that the more expensive and more wide the range of health delivery is, the better is the quality, driving up cost.
With device manufacturers finding no incentives to lower the cost of their products, the cost continues to be on the higher end. The global medical device market, Puri said, is dominated by western market. Ninety percent of revenues are derived from West Ame rica and Western Europe. Four fifth of the world consumes less than 10% of the medical devices, he said.