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Meril, a Gujarat-based medical devices company, has launched an indigenously developed surgical robotic technology, MISSO, which will provide assistance to doctors during knee replacement surgeries in real-time.
It is expected to make these surgeries up to 66 per cent cheaper.
Banking on affordability, Meril aims to sell around 100 such robotic systems in the first year, and in three years, it plans to sell around 1,000 such units.
The company claimed that at Rs 2 crore, MISSO is priced around 66 per cent lesser than the available robotic knee replacement systems in the Indian market.
Speaking to Business Standard, Manish Deshmukh, head of marketing, India & Global, Meril said that at present, around 200 knee replacement robotic systems are deployed across hospitals in India.
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Knee replacement surgeries can come down by about 40-60 per cent, Deshmukh claimed, since the cost of acquisition of the robot has reduced for hospitals.
As such, the cost of essential consumables for the MISSO robotic system would cost Rs 25,000 for every surgery, less than Rs 35,000 in the conventional robotic systems.
"Since the cost of the acquisition comes down for hospitals, and it can recover the costs faster, they are likely to pass on the benefits to the patients, who may now be able to opt for a knee replacement 40-60 per cent cheaper," Deshmukh told Business Standard.
This, however, would vary with hospitals. The cost of knee replacement surgeries currently ranges between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh.
Deshmukh reckoned that there is enough potential in Tier-II and Tier-III cities for such precision surgical technology, and it can be tapped by Meril due to the cost advantage.
The number of knee replacement surgeries has been on the rise in the past few years, but the demand is still higher.
It is estimated that around 5,50,000 surgeries take place every year, while around 3.2 million patients need this surgery.
It took two years for Meril to develop the MISSO, which it now plans to expand to overseas markets in Asia, the EU, and the US.
There are plans to launch more applications – for hip or spine surgeries using the same platform.
“Every few months, we would try to launch more applications on the MISSO,” Deshmukh said.
Meril has tasted success with the orthopedic implants market, where it claims to have a 45 per cent share of the market.
Orthopaedic implant sales are estimated to be around Rs 2,300-2,400 crore annually and Meril has a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore from orthopedic implants.
The use of AI in this system has made it possible to reduce the pre-operative planning time by 83 per cent and improve personalisation.
Through the use of a robotic system, the success rate of knee replacement surgery is close to around 98 per cent.
Total knee replacement is a surgical procedure that involves replacing a damaged or worn-out knee joint with an artificial joint made of metal and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.
Knee replacement surgery is necessary for patients who suffer from severe osteoarthritis. This condition is prevalent in India, occurring in around 22 to 39 per cent of the population.
“The prevalence of osteoarthritis has surged from around 23 million to 62 million in the last 20-25 years, making it the second-largest disease modality after cardiovascular conditions. The gap between the need and adoption of knee replacement surgery can be addressed more efficiently by the widespread use of robotic surgery,” Deshmukh said.
Currently, the affordability of robotic surgery procedures is a challenge in India.
“Hospitals also hesitate to invest in imported robotic systems because it requires the training of surgeons and OT staff and a long turnaround time for service-related requests. With MISSO, we aim to address these challenges by providing the platform indigenously alongside an ecosystem of training and support that will make robotic surgery highly accessible, not only in metros, but also in Tier-II and Tier-III cities,” he added.
