In
Vitro Diagnostics, A Key Contributor to Medical
Devices Sector

Dr. P. Siva Kumar
MedTek Professional - Advisor, New Delhi |
Medical devices constitute an
important part of health care sector. They
comprise of an extraordinarily heterogeneous class
of products. Medical Devices include such
technologically simple items as ice bags and
tongue depressors on one end of the continuum and
very sophisticated items such as cardiac
pacemakers and proton therapy devices on the other
end.
Medical device industry is
highly innovative and technologydriven component
of healthcare and thus constantly changes the face
of healthcare in the areas of diagnosis,
treatment, and delivery.
The growth potential of the
medical devices sector is the highest among all
sectors in India’s healthcare market, with the
country ranking as the fourth largest market for
medical devices in Asia. With a potential for
strong domestic demand and other supporting
factors, India is set to emerge as an ideal
destination for setting up manufacturing
facilities. |
India is a land full of
opportunities for players in the medical devices
industry. The country has also become one of the
leading destinations for high-end diagnostic services
with tremendous capital investment for advanced
diagnostic facilities, thus catering to a greater
proportion of population.
Unfortunately, medical devices in
India are still dominated by the multi-national
overseas players and is hugely dependent on imports.
India depends on imports to the tune of 85% of the
total domestic demand of medical devices. Under these
circumstances of high imports, there is a mismatch
between design of certain technologies being imported
and realities of clinical conditions, healthcare
infrastructure and the needs of India.
Hence, there is no argument that
being self-reliant in this most crucial sector is
vital from a health security perspective. This high
import dependency apart from strong domestic demand,
offers an attractive proposition for domestic
manufacturers. At present, the Indian companies are to
a large extent involved in manufacturing low-end
products for local as well as international
consumption to a smaller extent.
If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic
has underlined our dependence on other nations for a
range of medical supplies from medicines to oxygen
concentrators and so on.
As a result of the pandemic,
several new manufacturers started to produce in the
country. For example, prior to COVID, there were only
20 firms manufacturing 62 lakhs PPE kits per year, but
within 2-3 months, the number of manufacturers has
increased to 140 with annual capacity of 25.55 crores.
Similarly, the number of Indian manufacturing firms,
including ventilator manufacturers went up from 8 to
17, mask manufacturers from 30 to 108, swab
manufacturers from 0 to 5, sanitizer manufacturers
from 35 to 49 and RT PCR kit manufacturers from 0 to
>20.
The current market size of the
medical device industry in India is estimated to be
$11 billion, with a projected CAGR of 14.8% and is
expected to reach $11.86 billion in 2021-22 and $50
billion by 2025. India has the lowest per capita spend
of around USD 3 on medical devices and it is due to
the massive under-penetration that is being addressed.

Around 65% of the medical device
manufacturers in India are domestic players operating
in the consumables segment and catering to local
consumption with limited exports. As per the industry
reports, large MNCs dominate the high technology end
of the medical devices market with extensive service
networks. There are 750–800 domestic medical devices
manufacturers in India, with an average investment of
$2.3–2.7 million and an average turnover of $6.2-6.9
million.
With changing economic and
regulatory environment, the medical devices industry
is expected to grow significantly, fuelled by a range
of factors including ‘Make in India’ initiative of
Government of India. ‘Local innovation’ by MNCs as
well as domestic players is also expected to drive
indigenous manufacturing and lead to rapid growth of
exports.
Tech-driven medical devices have
been playing a pivotal role in driving Indian
healthcare to reach the last mile. Due to rising
demand of quality diagnostic services coupled with
latest innovations, the industry is growing by leaps
and bounds.
One of the key challenges mentioned
by healthcare companies in manufacturing medical
devices in India include lack of adequate
infrastructure and logistics, concentrated supply
chains and high cost of finance..
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