Philips launches new `Made-in-India’ medical equipment

Philips launches new `Made-in-India’ medical equipment

Philips has launched new diagnostic equipment that has been developed and designed at its two R&D Centres in India and manufactured at its Greenfield facility at Chakan near Pune.

One of the two products unveiled today are the MobileDiagnost Opta, a digital X-Ray system for use in restricted spaces like intensive care units and operations theatres.

The second, BV Vectra is a mobile C-arm system dedicated to orthopaedic surgical procedures.

The equipment is part of five products developed indigenously so far and manufactured at the Philips Healthcare Innovation Centre (HIC) at Chakan. A sixth product – a mammography unit - is under development.

For Philips, this is one of six such centres worldwide and the only one in emerging markets.

The manufacturing facility, which went on stream in 2012, gives the Dutch Electronics giant easier access to the Rs. 6,000 crore market for medical equipment in India.

“The Indian subcontinent is in the top 10 of 17 market groups (covering 100 countries) globally for Philips Healthcare, and we want to be in the top 5,” Sameer Garde, President and CEO, Philips Healthcare SouthAsia, said.

With three main players in the country - GE, Siemens and Philips - currently nearly 80 per cent of all medical equipment in India is imported. "Philips is committed to bringing this down," he added.

Earlier, unveiling the new products, Rekha Ranganathan, global GM, mobile surgery and head, Philips HIC said that the Centre was well positioned to address global markets with products, solutions and services for image-guided therapy. Nearly 20-25 per cent of the production from Chakan had been sent to over 90 countries, she said.

She added that Philips also plans to increase localization – currently varying from 10-50 per cent for the various products - and was developing a supplier base for components.

This article was originally posted on Business Line.