Maxx Medical, a Singapore based medical device company with global research and manufacturing facilities in the US, is banking on its Freedom Total Knee System (Freedom Knee) that has been customised for Indian anatomical needs to emerge as one of the top 3 players in the Indian knee replacement market within the next three years.
"The two major players in the market now are Johnson & Johnson and Zimmer and we want to be in the top-3 slot within the next three years. The overall knee replacement market in India is around 45,000 knees systems per year and it is clocking a demand growth of 30-40 per cent per annum.", said Ashesh Shah, president and CEO of Maxx Medical private limited. The company currently sells the knee systems in the US, western European countries and the Gulf. It plans to enter the South East Asian markets of Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia within the next three months, he informed.
The high-flexion knee replacement system has been specifically engineered to address the need for smaller sized and differently proportioned implants to support the Indian lifestyle. Freedom Knee supports the deep knee bending and range of motion needs of Asian patients, including running, biking, transitioning from squatting to standing, and sitting on the floor cross-legged. The system is approved by the United States Food & Drug Administration (US FDA) European CE and the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). Maxx Medical plans to import the knee systems to India from the US as of now. Shah added, "We want the knees that we sell here to be of globally approved standards. The USFDA has recently opened an India office in Delhi, and we are in talks with them. If things go well, and similar quality can be produced in India, we can think of moving part of production here." Vivek Shah, regional director of Maxx Medical private limited informed that the company now manufactures the knees in the US through U SFDA approved vendors. Maxx Medical is the parent company for Maxx Orthopedics Inc, the manufacturer of the Freedom Total Knee System. Freedom Knee is a complete primary knee replacement system developed collaboratively by orthopedic and biomedical design experts. Vivek Shah said that Indians generally have less bone stock than their western counterparts, a condition that makes surgery difficult.
The price of a Freedom Knee system is around Rs 65,000 to 85,000. "We have taken care that the product is priced at par with the other retro-fit products available in the Indian market.", Ashesh Shah said.