Hearing implants major MED-EL is looking to work with around 500 clinics across India in five years as it undertakes a series of initiatives to reach out to more people with its products.
The Austrian firm, through its Indian arm MED-EL India, currently works with over 100 clinics in 45 cities across the country.
"As the implants programmes grow, we plan to be associated with 500 clinics in India in five years down the line. We are looking at a growth of 30-40 per cent on a year-on-year basis," MED-EL India Pvt Ltd Director Tejinder Singh told PTI.
The company is looking to increase the presence in tier II and III cities, he added.
"We will also set up a service and repair centre in India to help make after-sales service and support more affordable and time efficient," Singh said.
The company plans to close the year with 1,500 implants. Minimum implant cost currently is about Rs 5 lakh, but because "we have been able to increase the sales, we have been able to bring down the price from Rs 8 lakh in 2006 for a basic device," he added.
The company has decided to set up a training academy in India to build human resource capacity with training and will be able to build centres of excellence through the academy, Singh said.
MED-EL has been supporting government sponsored cochlear implant programmes in several states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh among others, he added.
MED-EL Medical Electronics is a leading provider of hearing implant systems with 29 subsidiaries worldwide. It is currently present in 115 countries globally.
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