A huge market of precision surgical instruments had started surging in India during late 90s. India has become one of the top countries in Asia to import the surgical instruments. Core applications of such precision tools are neurosurgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, wound closure, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiovascular, orthopedic and lot more other surgeries. Various innovations and newer applications are changing dynamics of this industry day-by-day.

 

The Indian medical devices industry is currently sized at around $ 5 billion which is 6.9 per cent of the $ 72.6 billion Asia/Pacific industry size. The overall health care industry in India is valued at $ 160 billion which is expected to reach $ 280 billion by the year 2020. Thus, India’s medical devices, surgical equipment and pharmaceutical industry are promising to grow significantly in the coming years and will emerge as cost effective supplier to the whole world. There are about 1800 domestic firms in the country, mainly MSMEs which are competing in the range of low to medium technology products.

 

Global medical devices market is anticipated to reach a value of $ 435.8 billion by 2020, according to a ITA Medical Devices Top Markets Report 2016. As per industry sources, this is expected to grow at 7.8 per cent CAGR year on year. Experts say, increasing number of minimally invasive surgeries is anticipated to accelerate the market growth. Road accidents, treatment of chronic diseases, increasing trend of plastic surgeries etc. are other trending causes to raise the demand for surgical instruments.

 

Switzerland based Scientist, Dr Rajendra Joshi, Chairman of RUJ & SRM Mechanics, said, “India has a huge potential to overcome from being a trader dependent to innovative and precision manufacturing entity in surgical equipments market. By reducing import and producing cost effective high-end products, country will be able to save a huge cost on healthcare spending. However, during last few years, Indian government has succeeded in attracting many Swiss, German, Japanese and US companies and many of them have shown keen interest in setting-up their manufacturing base in India.”

 

In recent past new players have made entries in this segment such as SRM Technologies (Switzerland) has formed JV with RUJ Group (Jaipur); MAG Industrial Automation Systems (USA) has set-up a subsidiary in India; Heller (Germany) has formed JV with TAL Manufacturing Solution; Glidemeister (Germany) has set up tech centre in Bangalore; Schuler (Germany) has entered in JV with an Indian company; MAUS (Italy) has formed JV with TAL Manufacturing Solutions; and Rosa Ermando (Italy) has formed JV with UCAM of Bangalore to set up manufacturing facility in India.  

 

Jayant Joshi, Managing Director, RUJ & SRM Mechanics, stated, “Demand of precision manufacturing for surgical instruments industry is nearly untouched and being fulfilled by traders who are mainly importers. 

 

At RS India’s Jaipur plant, the manufacturing processes and techniques like up to 5Axis milling, turning, Swiss type turning, surface-, cylindrical- and center less grinding, punching, laser cutting, bending, vacuum heat treatment, anodizing (aluminum & titanium both), plating, powder coating, assembling and assembling under clean conditions is installed and available for all types of precision machining and assembly as required for B2B manufacturing.”

 

Medical devices market: Forecast for growth, in $ Billions

Region	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Americas	166.6	176.5	187.3	197.9	208.6
Asia/Pacific	68.7	72.6	77.6	82.9	88.6
Central/Eastern	14.6	15.7	17	18.1	19.1
Middle East/ Africa	10	10.8	11.5	12.5	13.2
Western European	79.5	85.1	92.6	101.4	106.2
Total	339.5	360.8	386.1	412.8	435.8