The Hindu Business Line : Relisys Medical to set up catheter facility

EYEING a huge demand for catheters (which are used in various heart procedures), Relisys Medical Devices is setting up Asia's first catheter manufacturing facility near here.

"About 20,000 angiographic procedures are done every month in India, with each catheter costing Rs 4,000. We can reduce the catheter's price by one-third when the facility becomes operational," Mr N.G. Badrinarayana, Managing Director of Relisys Medical Devices, said.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the integrated Rs 11-crore facility would have a research and development unit, catheter manufacturing unit and stent development division.

The unit would be operational in six months.

Marking the foundation stone laying ceremony, the company was releasing Cobol+C, a new coronary stent system made of cobalt-chromium steel. The new product, with lesser strut thickness, reduces restenosis (re-narrowing of the stent) rates. Dr Krishna Reddy, Chairman of the company, said: "The market size of medical devices and disposals is as large as the pharmaceutical industry. They comprise 60-70 per cent cost of major procedures. They account for nearly 60 per cent of the cost of angioplasty, open-heart surgery and dialysis.

The cost of the procedures can be brought down by bringing down the cost of these devices which are by and large being imported."

The global market size for medical devices and disposals is put at $150 billion.

"By 2007-2008, the organised indigenous industry can attend to 50 per cent of the domestic market which could be around $3,500 million, while achieving exports to the tune of $2,000 million," he said.

Mr Badrinarayana said the company was also looking at tapping the US, European Union and Latin American markets.

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