From the wire: Aptar Pharma, which develops and manufactures nasal and pulmonary drug-delivery devices, has announced the opening of a new facility near Mumbai, India.
Located at Rabale, Navi Mumbai, the new site includes an ISO Class 7 cleanroom, which will be used primarily to produce the DF30 metering valve platform for metered dose inhalers and to assemble spray pumps. Read more…
Billed as a Raman homecoming of sorts, the 23d International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy (ICORS) will be held in Bangalore on 12 to 17 August 2012. The meeting will convene at the Indian Institute of Science, which is the original home of Sir C.V. Raman, where many of Raman’s spectroscopic studies were carried out. The ICORS conference was last held in Bangalore in 1978. Read more…
Medical device manufacturers are migrating to India as medical pipelines in the west get seriously thin, said Professor Balram Bhargava of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences during a lecture at Judge Business School, Cambridge University. He also predicted that China, Israel and India would join forces in the next decade or so to develop devices for western consumption. India is “poised to lead in a decade of frugal and affordable innovation that will impact global economies,” he added.
Ireland-based medical technology company Covidien plans to acquire local companies and invest in clinical training facilities as part of its expansion plans in India, reports the Hindu Business Line. The US$11 billion company is also aggressively seeking to hire top-tier talent, Arjun Sarker, Managing Director, Indian Sub-Continent, told Business Line.
Processes for fabricating 3-D porous biomaterials from regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) have been developed by India’s NCL Innovations, part of the National Chemical Laboratory. Notably, NCL scientists have been able to accelerate RSF gelation time to produce a porous structure. The process, which typically takes several days, now can be completed in a few hours. The organisation has also been able to create 3-D porous structures by electrospinning RSF from an aqueous solution. Medical applications include tissue engineering, wound care and drug delivery. NCL Innovations is seeking licensing partners for the technologies. Read more…
One of Asia’s premier biotechnology companies, Biocon recently announced the launch of Haselmeier’s INSUPen in India. The INSUPen is a reusable insulin pen based on Haselmeier’s popular i-pen technology. Read more…
The International Conference on Technological Challenges in Developing Affordable In-Vitro Molecular Diagnostics will be held from 11 to 14 March 2012 in Navi Mumbai, India. The conference aims to assess the needs and priorities in the area of IVDs and identify major hurdles in developing novel, rapid and indigenous cost-effective diagnostics for diseases prevalent in developing countries. Read more…
India accounts for almost a quarter of tuberculosis cases and 25% of multidrug resistant (MDR) cases in the world, yet there has not been any attempt to produce an innovative diagnostic test for TB on the subcontinent.
The diagnostic test that is currently used by the Indian TB programme (RNTCP) for routine cases is sputum smear microscopy, a technique that was developed more than 100 years ago. The private sector uses serological (antibody) tests, which the World Health Organization advises against. While serological tests work well for several infectious diseases, antibody tests for TB are known to be inaccurate, inconsistent and of no clinical value, says the WHO.
A preliminary analysis by McKinsey and Co. estimates the annual TB diagnostics market in India to be worth approximately US$100 million, although the actual market size could could be significantly larger as the private sector does not report cases. The RNTCP screens more than 7.5 million people with suspected active TB every year and a similar number is likely to seek care in the private sector. Thus, at least 15 million people will need to be tested, which should translate into a fairly sizeable market.
Sundaram Medical Devices (SMD) is building a better bed for India’s hospitals. A Chennai-based start-up, SMD has applied for 11 separate patents on products ranging from ordinary ward to ICU beds and manual to electronic beds.
Last year, SMD won the Harvard Business School competition for new ventures, competing against 70 global contenders to win a cash prize of US$25,000. Read more…
India’s medical device and equipment market is expected to reach US$6.41 million by 2014, growing 15.5% annually. The market has opened up for importers, MNCs as well as indigenous manufacturers. Driving this growth is increased awareness and affordability coupled with an expanding patient pool and ever-growing export demands from Western and emerging markets.
To provide members of India’s medical device industry with the tools they need to succeed in this dynamic environment, MEDTEC Conferences has organised an information-packed three-day event. Medical Devices India 2011, which takes place at The Park in New Delhi from 5 to 7 December 2011, is structured into the following programme: Read more…
