Medical Equipment Industry : A New Sunrise Sector for Manufacturing Technologies

The Indian machine tool industry is all geared up to explore opportunities in medical device manufacturing. With the Government’s supportive initiatives in this regard, the industry is close to establish the country as a hotbed for the manufacture of healthcare equipment.

Machining equipment for the medical sector when manufactured indigenously carries distinct advantages. One of them being the affordability it will have for a price-sensitive Indian market. Local manufacturing of sophisticated devices need advanced technologies and this will be made possible when machine tool industry weaves in technology, innovations and R&D. Once these are channelized, India may emerge as a hub for the manufacture of medical equipment.

For this we need to create a synergy between the manufacture of medical equipment and technology. The Government of India could play a role in this by establishing a link between machine tools and medical equipment manufacturing.

Embracing advanced technologies

Indian machine tool industry, on its part, needs to innovate as well as move towards next generation technologies such as additive manufacturing, IoT, artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, etc. to enhance precision and quality of medical equipment manufactured in India. This will also lead to the development of critical devices and consumables required for day-to-day patient care such as valves, stents, orthopaedic and dental implants, other diagnostic equipment, surgical instruments, and many more. With the development of indigenous products, the dependency on imported technology could be drastically reduced.

The Government of India’s support for R&D in machine tool industry with the setting up of the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Centre at IIT-Madras is expected to push this forward. The Centre, in collaboration with industrial partners, offers solutions for developing advanced technologies. This will lead to the manufacturing of high-precision components, sub-assemblies, laser welding medical devices, etc.

Medical equipment manufacturing offers scope

Speaking on the opportunities for the machine tool industry in medical equipment manufacturing, P Ramadas, President, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA), said, “There is much to be explored by the machine tool industry in medical equipment manufacturing. Government initiatives have given us the right directions and the machine tool industry needs to take full advantage of it. The Government’s move to consider manufacturing of medical equipment as distinct from medicines from a regulatory perspective will help medical equipment manufacturers, and we expect that the development will translate into more orders of machine tools needed for manufacturing that equipment.”

V Anbu, Director General & CEO, IMTMA, supported Ramadas’ views: “The establishment of med tech parks in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, which will have in-house manufacturing facilities and access to raw materials, will bring down the cost of manufacturing and create demand for manufacturing technologies.”

In health space, Indian medical devices industry is a sunrise segment. It is a major contributor for employment as well as revenue. As per the Government of India’s estimates, there are some 750 – 800 medical device manufacturers in India with an average investment ranging from `17 – 20 crore and an average turnover of `45 – 50 crore.

India rising as a sought-after destination

India is firmly placed as one of the markets to look out for ranking just behind Japan, China and South Korea. Foreign firms are eyeing India as a manufacturing stronghold and many are setting up facilities of their own or acquiring domestic companies for production of devices having high level of performance. Some of these are 3M’s manufacturing plant in Pune, Becton Dickinson’s manufacturing facility in Haryana, Hollister setting up a facility for manufacturing healthcare products in India, Philips acquiring Alpha X-ray Technologies, etc.

It is also interesting to note that quite recently, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, has sought comments from various stakeholders for its proposal that domestically sourced components have to contribute 25 – 50 percent of the cost of medical devices procured by the Government, depending on the category of the device. This would further aid the industry in indigenous production as purchase preference shall be given to local suppliers.

India’s machine tool industry is known for catering to the ever-growing needs of automotive industry and the time has come for it to look at sunrise sectors such as medical equipment industry which will enable the machine tool industry garner sustainable business.

IMTMA Celebrates 50 Years of IMTEX

IMTMA will organize its flagship IMTEX 2019 & Tooltech 2019 at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), Bengaluru, from January 24 – 30, 2019.

The exhibition will showcase the latest trends and technological refinements from India. It will also host global players from a wide spectrum of manufacturing and ancillary industries including medical equipment manufacturing.

As part of IMTEX 50 years celebration, IMTMA is introducing two new concurrent shows: The one on additive manufacturing will focus exclusively on products related to additive manufacturing. The other show will have Industry 4.0 as its focus. It will shed light on the technologies that are being adapted in smart manufacturing.

Stay tuned to www.imtex.in for further developments.

Quite recently, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, GoI, has sought comments from various stake-holders for its proposal that domestically sourced components have to contribute 25-50 per cent of the cost of medical devices procured by the Government, depending on the category of the device.