India may not be quite where China is yet as a lure for international medical device operations seeking to take advantage of surging growth opportunities. But the country has an eye toward similar growth, with early interest in the manufacturing side.
New Delhi's Medtec India trade show, as reported by Plastics News, provides a good gauge as to where some of that interest is coming from. On the one hand, most medical devices are still imported into the country, and India isn't yet attracting major medical device M&A, such as Medtronic ($MDT) has pursued in China. Some industry folks quoted in the story said the country is far from experiencing the surging level of expansion China now faces. And R&D investment as pursued by all of the major device players in China in recent months hasn't visibly replicated itself to the same degree in India. At least not yet.
But the story reflects a growing interest in India's medical device manufacturing capabilities, particularly in the contract manufacturing space.
Among the industry players profiled in the story:
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SMC Ltd. of Wisconsin. The company launched a manufacturing facility in Bangalore in 2011 and is planning to make plastic medical devices there for cardiovascular, respiratory and orthopedic use.
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Mikron. The Swiss company is turning its manufacturing focus to both India and China. It makes high-precision assembly and testing equipment and is targeted, in part, to India's medical sector.
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FLG Automation. The German company is looking at setting up manufacturing lines in India that would make dialysis and filter technology.
Lets keep in mind, too, that India, with its surging population and bid to modernize its own healthcare system, is poised for China-like med tech growth at some point. A recent report, for example, sees India's medical device market surging from $3 billion today to about $11 billion within a decade--still well behind China but growing fast.
- read the story
Editor's Corner: For device and Dx companies, there's no turning back from China
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