The move to control prices of stents and knee implants “upset us” and was “worrisome”, but talks on an India-US trade deal fuel “optimism”, the global head of US medical device giant Stryker Corporation said. Told News18.com.
In an exclusive interview with News18.com, Kevin Lobo, one of the global corporation’s India-born CEO, said that “regulatory clarity” is something that global companies look forward to. India To design its business plans and Stryker is eagerly waiting for the successful completion of the business deal.
Lobo said, “The India-US trade agreement is an encouraging step and a step in the right direction. “It has been put on hold because the deal covers many other sectors outside medical devices. But every day, it seems that it is getting closer and closer,” he added quickly: “I am optimistic that it will happen soon.”
And once that happens, he said, it will give the company more confidence to bring other products to India.
Lobo was on tour for the recently opened Striker Global technology Center (SGTC) set up in the heart of the Special Economic Zone area of Gurugram.
Ranked among the top 10 medical technology companies worldwide, Stryker offers innovative products and services in medicine and surgery, neurotechnology, orthopedics and spine, with global sales of over $17 billion. In India, Striker began its commercial operations in 1999.
Sitting on the fifth floor of SGTC, which houses over 25 state-of-the-art product and diagnostic laboratories spread over an area of 45,000 square feet, Lobo seemed excited about the concept of business margin rationalization.
“If trade margin rationalization (TMR) is adopted as part of a new trade deal, it will be great news for medical device innovation and bringing great technologies to the Indian market,” said Lobo, who was a hiatus Later visiting India. three years.
“TMR has been agreed bilaterally… so the US government and the Indian government have agreed that this will be the new way of price control in India.”
Price controls “nervous” us
Lobo said the challenge (in the Indian market) is price control, which impacted product categories such as cardiac stents and knee implants, leading to a fall in the price of the latter by around 75%.
He was referring to the move Narendra Modi The government in 2017 and again in 2018 to introduce price caps to reduce the cost of stents and knee implants.
“It was very harsh but then they stopped after that. And there hasn’t been any other product, which is good news. But now that they have stopped and they haven’t moved to other categories, I feel more confident about bringing the creations to India. When you have that type of uncertainty, it pissed us off. ,
However, Lobo said, he is now “optimistic.” “I was nervous about it three or four years ago, and I am getting more optimistic. We are still under a little cloud. But in the meantime, India is a big market and has great potential.
Latest Innovations by Indian Team for the Indian Market
One of the purposes of Lobo’s visit was to check on the progress of an upcoming product – Smart Medic.
“This is the first product that is completely designed, manufactured in India, and will be sold in India … This will be our first product dedicated to India.”
Smart Medic is a device that partially converts a bed into a smart bed. It is a platform that goes under the mattress and can be placed on any bed. Aimed primarily at bedridden patients, the technology will give regular updates about a patient’s weight, helping doctors more accurately decide the dose of medication rather than by eye ball. It also provides alerts to nursing staff about when to turn a patient to avoid pressure ulcers and bed sores.
“It is completely designed by the Indian team, and is going to be sold in the Indian market first, and then probably later it will become a global product,” Lobo claimed, adding that such a solution does not exist in the market. Is. , The company is working towards launching this product in India very soon.
“We are excited about India as a technological innovation,” Lobo said while sipping coffee.
Recalling the top products, Lobo said that the company has already brought some of its best innovations to India. “An example is Mako, a robot that assists in knee and hip-replacement surgery and neurovascular interventions. There is also a new 1688 generation camera with fluorescence imaging for surgeons that lights up the area and allows anatomy to be seen clearly. It is amazing, and it is very safe; surgery becomes safe,” he explained while discussing several other techno-innovations in India.
No plans to bring manufacturing to India soon
While the company is focusing on bringing its latest innovations to India and starting to innovate through Indian R&D laboratories, there are no plans to bring manufacturing to India anytime soon.
“We’re not as focused on bringing manufacturing to India,” Lobo said while sitting down with the sales and R&D heads in India.
Currently, he said, the company is looking to bring the latest technologies to India. “Ultimately, we can do more. But these high-technology products that we have, we manufacture them in very few places around the world,” he said.
For example: Mako robots are made in Florida for the world because it’s so high-tech, he said. “We cannot think of changing Aadhaar because of the regulatory process and everything, it takes a long time. And now you have this global chip crunch, which is a nightmare. So this is not the best time for us to build new factories when we already have factories. ,
He added: “So, I would say in the long term, we are not against bringing manufacturing, but in the short term, there is no big incentive for us to do so.”
He reiterated that the company is looking for “regulatory certainties” to make such long-term decisions. “We need regulatory certainty with trade margin rationalization, which is important so that we know if we’re going to bring manufacturing here.”
He continued: “I have to make sure I can get a good price for the product we’re selling. But once that’s done (the decision on TMR), I think we’re going to have to bring the manufacturer here. will be more open to
Indian products price ‘difficult’
Pricing is a very tricky topic, Lobo acknowledged. “I’ll be honest and it’s been a challenge for us.”
Explaining why affordability and latest technology don’t go hand in hand and how prices can be brought down in the future, he added: “Will our high-tech products be available to the masses? Maybe not in the first stage. So, let’s bring here the best technology and make it available to those who can afford it. That is step one. ,
After that, he said, “we can seek out the public because that gives us a certain size or market presence as a company”. “Once you get to a certain size, you can start to explore how we diversify the product to drive down prices,” he stressed.
“Smart Medic is a good example. So it is innovation at a very low cost as it does not require new bedding, and it is custom-made for India to solve problems at a low cost.”
He recalled that the company was “not even thinking” about a project like it was five years ago. “So now we’re trying to find new solutions that may be more affordable.”
In a sincere acknowledgment, Lobo said that the company’s priority is to bring the best of innovation to India. “And then after we do that, we’ll also try to find ways to make it more affordable. But we can’t do both at once. It’s too difficult.”
Pinning his hopes on the latest product to be launched in India, he said: “If this Smart Medic works, it will propel us to launch something at lower prices and be successful.”
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