Indore firm to offer cheap pacemakers to poors

Indore-based company, Shree Pacetronix Limited (SPL) has approached the Madhya Pradesh government with a plan to manufacture pacemakers at half the market cost for heart patients who are below the poverty line.

"An operation to implant a pacemaker in one's body costs around Rs 1 lakh. The cost of the equipment comes to around Rs 50,000. However, if the Madhya Pradesh government accepts our proposal, this cost could be cut down by half ", said Athul Sethi, director, SPL.

SPL, a CE and ISO certified company, supplies pre-programmed cardiac pacemakers to people below the poverty line in West Bengal. The pacemakers are manufactured at its Rs. 5.5 crore-Pithampur plant and so far, the company has supplied 200 pacemakers, said Sethi.

"Those who try to calculate cost-benefit ratio and argue that pacemaker is an expensive technology, undermine the fact this equipment can primarily save lives. It can increase the life expectancy of an 80-year-old person by five to six years,'' said the company's promoter, Surendra Singh.