Siemens Medical eyes bigger pie with new products

Diagnostic and therapeutic technology solutions provider, Siemens Medical Systems, hopes to sell around 20 units of its soon-to-be launched CT (computed tomography) device - Somatom Definition AS+ (Adapt Scanner plus) - in India in the next 12 months, even as it is planning to introduce a slew of new products in the country by March 2008.

"We are in talks with a few health institutes and hospitals, and hope to sell around 20 units of the new device, each at a cost of Rs 5.5 crore, across the country in the next 12 months, with five of them expected to be installed in south India," D Ragavan, executive vice-president (medical solutions division), Siemens Ltd, told Business Standard, while refusing to spell out further details.

Somatom Definition AS+, which the company claims to be the fastest CT scanner in the world, is slated for its commercial roll out in April 2008 globally. The Mayo Clinic and the Medical University of South Carolina in the US, University of Munich in Germany, University of Zurich in Switzerland and the Clinic Notre Dame in Belgium will be the first users of the device from January 2008.

In India, the first Somatom Definition AS+ will be installed at the K G Hospital in Coimbatore in April 2008. The device comes with the fastest coverage speed with 128-slices and a footprint of 18 square metre, as against 64-slices and 26 square metre in conventional CT scans.

Demand for CT scanning, especially in cardiac imaging and biopsy, is increasing by the day. However, there is a lack of awareness in dose of radiation on the patient, which is up to 7.8 milli sievert (mSv) in conventional CT scans. Somatom Definition AS+, however, reduces the radiation dose to 1.5 mSv, and Siemens expects it to create a new paradigm in this space, he said.

According to Ragavan, the company is also lining up a few more products, which include two MRIs, high-definition PET scans, new platform in cath labs for angiography, ultrasound breast scan and digital mammography devices. "These products will be introduced in India by March 2008," he said.

Siemens Medical, which presently commands a 45 per cent market share in the CT segment in India, hopes to carve out a substantial growth in its share in the Indian market, with the roll out of its new products.

"We are aiming at a growth rate higher than the Indian market, which is logging into big times with nearly 200 CT scanners being sold annually," he said. Thus far, the company has sold 700 CT scanners in the country.

Siemens enjoys a 40 per cent market share in MRIs, PET CTs and linear accelerators (cath labs), and 30 per cent in angiography. The euro 8.2-billion company spends close to 10 per cent of its topline on healthcare R&D.