Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Sep 24, 2006
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Sep 24, 2006 ePaper |
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Marketing
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New Products & Services 3M to add new healthcare products Madhumathi D.S.
Bangalore , Sept. 23 3M India has said its flagship healthcare business will get a boost in the year 2007 with a slew of new launches. Starting January, the company has lined up a number of new items targeted at infection control in hospitals. At least 20 novel surgical items and variants of existing ones are slated to come in, coinciding with the domestic boom in this sector, according to Mr Gautam Khanna, VP and Head of 3M India's Health Care Business. In comparison, 2005 saw just five introductions.
Prime driver
"3M has identified medical products as its prime driver in India," Mr Khanna told Business Line. "The healthcare sector here is booming and we are on a major growth path." Medical products account for 60 per cent of 3M India healthcare, which made a 2005 turnover of Rs 55 crore from 110 medical, dentistry and microbiology products. The forthcoming introductions will be only in the medical division, which now has 35 products. The Rs 380-crore Indian subsidiary has some 2,400 products across seven segments ranging from abrasives, signboards to office and construction consumables. Healthcare saw 25 per cent sales growth in 2005. With the new introductions targeted at the operation room, ICU and sterile services departments, the company, he said, was poised for "big growth". Globally, healthcare accounted for $4 billion of parent 3M's $21-billion sales in 2005.
Medical tourism
According to Mr Khanna, medical tourism, which promises to touch $2 billion in six years, is driving corporate hospitals and smaller nursing homes alike to upgrade themselves in a big way. Also, increased health consciousness among people, their rising health spends, hygiene and orthopaedic syndromes are all pushing the medical consumables market.
Upcoming launches
The upcoming launches will have surgical dressings, tapes, drapes, kits and chemicals. 3M has some proprietary medical best-sellers such as the transparent surgical tape, transparent dressing, wound closure tape that replaces sutures, apart from surgeon's masks, caps, drapes, sterilisation solutions, anti-microbial film and monitoring equipment, and Scotchcast, its funky fibreglass colour cast for fractures. Mr Khanna said 3M India also plans to bring back its reusable hot and cold pack that can be kept in the fridge or thawed in a microwave.
More Stories on : New Products & Services | Medical & Surgical Equipments
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