Vapi firm becomes India's first to take on Abbott in biodegradeable stents

Meril Life Sciences is first Indian firm to get nod for bio-resorbable cardiac scaffold

Meril Life Sciences, a medical devices company based out of the nondescript town of Vapi, has emerged as a challenger to multinational giant Abbott in the category of bioresorbable cardiac scaffold (BVS), following the health ministry’s recent approval of its product.

It has developed MeRes100, now recognised as India’s first indigenously made BVS — a naturally dissolving cardiac stent made out of biodegradable material and used for clearing blockages in arteries of the heart. While Meril has developed BVS for both coronary and peripheral arteries, for starters, it has received approval for the coronary variant.

The only other BVS available in the country comes from Abbott, which brought this stent (named Absorb) made of polylactide, a naturally dissolvable material, in India around 2012. The cost of this stent is estimated at around Rs 1.8-2 lakh. Meril, however, is yet to decide on the price of the stent.

The advantage of using BVS is that it dissolves, helping during future interventions or any other procedure (like scans) or even surgeries as there is no permanent metal stent implant in the heart. Also, the need for long-term treatment with anti-clotting medications may be reduced. As such, around 350,000 to 375,000 people in India undergo an angioplasty in a year, and the need for cardiac stents is estimated to be around 425,000-450,000 annually. Of this, around 8,000-10,000 pieces are BVS.

Around three million Indians suffer from heart attack annually and, therefore, the potential market size is huge.

This privately held company, part of the Bilakhia Group which has interests in education, had started its journey around 2006-07. Sanjeev Bhatt, vice-president, corporate strategy of Meril, said the company had been research-focussed since the very beginning and now has over 100 different technologies across its four verticals. Of the 2,500-strong company, around 150 are employed in the R&D division. MeRes100 took around two to three years to develop.

What’s more, it also has product approvals from around 100 countries, including regulated markets like the US and Japan. In fact, Bhatt claimed it is the only non-US and non-Japanese company which supplies the PTCA balloon dilatation catheter to China, a device used in cardiac intervention surgeries.

It draws 50 per cent of its revenues from international operations, and Bhatt expects this would increase. “Our products are made in India with a global perspective,” he added. Meril has direct sales and representatives offices in India, Germany, Turkey, the US, China and Brazil and its distribution model is spread over 102 countries across continents.

Meril has been clocking a 35 per cent CAGR in the past few years, and given that the government included two categories of stents (drug-eluting stents and bare metal stents) in the National List of Essential Medicines, it is likely to boost products made by local players as costlier imported devices would find it difficult to compete.

D L Pandya, an expert and owner of a publication on market research on medical devices, said the indigenous cardiac stents market is growing at 35 per cent annually while the overall medical devices industry is clocking a 15 per cent growth rate. “Price control is expected to give a lot of support to the local industry as the prices of stents were inappropriately inflated and new products are likely to add to the growth rate,” he added.

Meril is ready for expansion, if need be. Bhatt added they have two plants at their Vapi campus and there is room for expansion. The company has four business verticals — cardiovascular, orthopaedics, diagnostics and endo-surgery.