India is in the early stages of development and marketing of medical devices. It was not just medicine, but also IT, engineering and pharmaceuticals together that make better medical devices, and India is all ready to have them all in one place, said Dr Jai Pal Singh, Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research, St. Joseph Translational Research Institute and Emory Healthcare System in Atlanta, USA, here in Bangalore at the Bangalore India Bio 2012. He said, according to statistics in 2010, the US had the largest market of $200-300 billion while India had a market of only $2.4 billion.
On the per capita expenditure too, while Switzerland, which has a very low population, sees a per capita spend of $538, India has an allocation of only $2 per person. The figures itself show that India doesn’t have enough devices for patients according to their needs, he added.
On the greatest healthcare threat in India, he said it is not any infectious disease which causes the most number of deaths in India, but it is the cardiovascular diseases. Most youngsters and middle-aged people in the age group of 40-50 years face a high rate of incidence of these diseases. The chief reasons for these diseases are, lifestyle, genetic, low HDL and high cholesterol. He called for priority to be given to cardiac care, and diabetes-related diseases, even as it develops vaccines.
He said, “Investment dollars are hard. We should use them carefully” which showed the importance of the funding towards the production of medical devices. He stated that the devices made should be innovative, different form the devices present in the market, faster in giving results and less expensive. The producers should also determine the market size as to which customers will buy the product and at a price where profit can be realised.
