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Royal Philips launched MobileDiagnost Opto, a digital x-ray system that helps radiologists with consistent diagnostic image quality, with mobility.
The product, fifth from the Netherlands-based company which is made in India, will also be taken to the global market. The product is among a range from the Philips Healthcare Innovation Centre (HIC) here, a pioneering venture for the company in an emerging market. It began operations four years earlier.
“These products (the rive mentioned earlier) are part of our strategy of focusing our R&D work for both local-for-local use and for global markets. At present, HIC has capacity to manufacture 100 units per month of any of these. HIC is still in a nascent stage and we intend to roll out some more products from here,” said Rekha Ranganathan, its head.
With a R&D and innovation team at Pimpri and Chakan here, HIC is aimed to play an important role in supporting Philips’ local and global strategy in image-guided therapy. With the global leadership team for mobile surgery being based in Pune, HIC is to take a lead in delivering the company's innovations for both the Indian and global markets. The centre also manufactures ‘fixed’ imaging equipment for minimally invasive treatment of life threatening ailments like cardiovascular diseases. Currently, it has about 400 employees and shipped hundreds of systems to 90 countries in 2014.
Ranganathan says the hope is that HIC would help the company reduce dependence of Indian medical professionals on imports. In two years the facility has successfully doubled unit growth, launched global products, filed multiple patents and received significant investments.
Sameer Garde, president, South Asia, Philips Healthcare, said the medical devices and equipment market in India was pegged at Rs 30,000 crore and 75-80 per cent of the products were imported. “We want to bring down these numbers and HIC will play a crucial role. The products manufactured at HIC grew 24 per cent year-on-year. We expect HIC to grow faster than in 2014. BV Vectra will grow another four times than 2014,” he said, adding it grew 50 per cent in 2014.
HIC has filed for four patents and has 15 approved. In 2014, Philips invested approximately eight per cent of sales in research and development globally.
