Cover Story

Opportunities For New Entrepreneurs In Medical Textiles -
A Sun Rise Industry And Role Of Centre Of Excellence SITRA In Promotion Of Medical Textiles

8. Initiatives required

Government can incentivize manufacturing in terms of a) Converting and b) Rolled goods manufacturing for development of more customized entrepreneurial activity. An entire ecosystem of R&D, market linkages (treaty), incubation services, easy terms in technology development and manufacturing for global markets can be developed

1. Development of new Infrastructure; more specialized zones such as Medtech Zone in Visakhapatnam.
2. Focus on Indian IPR regime
    • The Government should strengthen India’s IPR regime through development of highly equipped patent offices and provision of online patent filing facility.
3. More tax incentives & subsidies by government from raw materials to final production, machine imports, machine spares and machine manufacturing
4. Organising or funding to organize more buyers to seller meets at domestic exhibitions as well as international levels.
5. Identifying the potential and existing medical textile manufacturing clusters and help them to produce, test and market their products
6. Incentivise MSMEs who are making medical textiles by offering benefits under schemes such as TUF.
7. For a better entrepreneurial resurgence, incentives should be provided to develop more indigenous machines. Subsidy to develop machines and technology and offering the same at rebated rates for easy paybacks for the startups.

9. Statistics on medical textiles in India

The total market size of medical textiles was $600 million in 2014 and reached $780 million by 2017 growing at 8-9% CAGR. In 2014, surgical dressings and surgical sutures alone accounted for more than 50 per cent at $380. Universal health coverage scheme, 100 per cent FDI under automatic route and support to PPP model to improve availability of health care services are among the initiatives which will have an impact on consumption. The medical textile market in India was at around $600 million in 2014, of which surgical dressings and surgical sutures alone accounted for about more than 50 per cent at $380. Universal health coverage scheme, 100 per cent FDI under automatic route and support to PPP model to improve availability of health care services are among the initiatives which will impact consumption (Medical textiles set to grow at 9% CAGR in India, ITJ, September, 2015). The market for medical textiles, segment-wise is given in the following table. (R. Alagirusamy and A. Das, 2010, Technical textile yarns-Industrial and medical applications, Woodhead publishing limited, UK).

10. Role of SITRA as a Centre of Excellence in Medical Textiles

Our national / International clients include textiles covering both conventional textiles, technical as well as non-textile units, manufacturing industries, traders, universities, individuals, defence, government agencies, etc. The basic services offered by CoE – Medical Textiles are as below

10.1 Testing and Evaluation

CoE-Medical Textiles has Analytical, Physical, Microbiological and Biotechnology, Material Characterization and tissue culture laboratories with high end equipment such as GCMS, LCMS, HPTLC, FeSEM, etc. The centre provides testing facilities as per national / international standards such as BIS, ISO, ASTM, DIN, Kenyan standards, etc. The laboratories are one of the best of its kind in the world, with NABL Certification as per ISO 17025 with well qualified and experienced staff.

Few of the products developed at SITRA are listed below:

S. No.	Product Name	End Use	Product Image
1	Orthopedic Shoe Insoles	The developed product reduces the risk of foot ulcer in diabetes patients
2	Hernia Mesh	A warp knitted mesh fabric helps to fasten the hernia and enhance the healing process
3	Cut resistant garments	The cut resistant garment protects the wearer against injuries caused by sharp objects
4	3D Spacer fabric Compression bandages	The developed product helps to avoid the complications associated with the conventional compression bandage such as skin necrosis and also reduces the treatment period
5	Nano finished surgical gowns	Nano finished surgical gowns have improved finish durability as compared to conventional finished surgical gown
6	Spunlaced nonwoven wound care dressings	The developed products handle heavy exudates and remove of malodour from the wound site
7	Chitosan Coated cotton gauzes	Controlled release of the drug in the coated gauzes ensures availability the drug in the wound site for a longer duration
8	Embroidery based wound dressings	The embroidery based woud dressings stimulate angiogensis in the wound site which helps to increase the rate of wound healing
9	Leukodepletion blood filter	The nanotechnology based developed products provide better leukocyte filtraion efficiency without affecting the other blood components
10	Herbal drug incorporated PCL Nanomembrane	The usage of herbal drugs to treat the infected wounds improves the wound healing efficiency
11	Rotator cuff repair devices	The developed products reduces the treatment period
12	PVA/Chitosan nanomembrane	The developed product which have antibacterial property helps to treat the infected wounds
13	Hospital Bed Linen with Improved thermal properties	To improve the comfort of the immobile patients
14	Bifurcated Vascular Graft	To increase the life of the patient who has under gone a graft replacement by means of improved blood flow
15	Barbed Bi-Directional Surgical Sutures.	The developed knot failure sutures help to avoid the complications associated with conventional sutures such as knot failure
16	HME Filter	The developed HME filters are used as a filter in breathing circuits to remove micro – flora and maintain humidity and heat of the supplied air