S&T Ministry to support Visakhapatnam-based medical implants startup

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Science and Technology’s Technology Development Board (TDB) has decided to provide financial support to a Visakhapatnam-based startup company for the development and commercialisation of a range of medical implants, robotic surgical instruments, and devices using metal injection molding (MIM) process.

MIM is a technology for manufacturing complex metal or ceramic powder components. The potential of MIM lies in its ability to combine the design flexibility of plastic injection molding and the versatility of unlimited choice of material offered by powder metallurgy. The start-up company, Orange Koi Private Limited, is led by Dr. Ravi Bollina, an alumnus of IIT Bombay. He has set it up in collaboration with Deepak Kukreti and Sasant Nuthakki.

Dr. Srivari Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, and Chairperson, TDB, said, “Currently, surgical instruments are either imported or made with casting or forging technologies and are not suitable for robotic surgical instruments or critical care surgical instruments applications. The global surgical instruments market currently comprises of only 2-3 global players, namely Johnson & Johnsons, Strykar and Smith and Nephew. We are proud to fund this team of young entrepreneurs, leading the way towards global change.”

Rajesh Kumar Pathak, Secretary, TDB, noted that TDB had been an invisible thread in development of the the Indian health ecosystem, funding most Indian healthcare companies in their startup days. “India’s first Liver Transplant Facility by M/s Ravindranath GE Medical Associates Pvt. Ltd. and first CBCT Radiotherapy system for Cancer Treatment by M/s Panacea Medical Technologies was partly funded by TDB”.

In recent years, the Government of India has been playing an important role in creating an enabling environment for the development of startup ecosystem, with greater emphasis on medtech startups. Among other things, it has come up with the scheme for ‘Promotion of Medical Device Parks’ to help medical devices & medtech companies with easy access to standard testing and world-class common infrastructure facilities.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has increased the demand for technologically advanced, high-quality, low-cost medical devices, accessible to the Indian population. These factors also attract international companies to set up production facilities in India. The MedTech sector in India, which was worth US$ 10.36 billion in 2020, is expected to be US$ 50 billion during 2020–2025. Around 4,000 Indian health-tech start-ups are undertaking multiple innovations, which are helping boost the MedTech market.

The startup that has been now chosen for financial support aims to manufacture a range of medical surgical instruments and device components like bone cutters, tweezers, metzenbaum wound closure clips, clamps, needles, staplers, and surgical accessory spoons, spatulas, and catheters.

(India Science Wire)