Baxter to make Indian arm global hub

Baxter India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based Baxter International, is planning to make its Indian operation a sourcing hub for its international pharmaceutical business. The company is panning to outsource huge quantities of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) from Indian Pharma players for its global generic injectible markets. 

After forking out $40 million (Rs. 195 crore) to acquire Wockhardt Lifescience, Baxter International has always been on the prowl for another acquisition in India to strengthen its presence in the different therapeutic segment. As part of its strategy to gain sizeable market share in the IV fluids segment, the company had also shown to acquire manufacturing facility of Ahmedabad based Core Healthcare Ltd.

In India, the company is positioning itself to be one of the top pharma companies with turnover of over Rs. 250 crore.

Baxter established operations in India in 1997, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baxter Healthcare International. It markets a variety of products used to treat patients with kidney disease, systems for blood collection and component separation, IV infusion systems, pain management products and many other therapeutic systems.

[Ref: Economic Times, dt. 10/06/04]

Manufacturing medical devices indigenously can reduce health care costs : Dr. Reddy

The only means to cut down costs of devices and disposables, which constitute a major component of healthcare cost, is by manufacturing them indigenously in India, avers Dr. Krishna Reddy, chairman of Relisys Medical Device – Drugs. According to Dr. Reddy, 60 to 70 percent costs of major procedures is contributed by the devices and disposables. The cost of the procedures can be brought down by bringing down the cost of devices. Currently, almost 90 percent of devices and disposables are being imported at international prices.

Only few low end products are being manufactured indigenously, such as fluid administration sets, blood bags and products such as condoms and copper – T. Majority of the low end devices and disposables are manufactured in the un-organised sector. Recently, efforts have been made in the high end products like heart valves, implantable pacemakers and coronary stents. Chitra Institute, a DST funded unit, has developed heart valve, he noted.
Emphasizing the need for close synergy between the medical devices industry and the government, he commended that if a congenial environment is provided, the Indian medical devices and disposables industry can be of a formidable force in the domestic and international market. By 2007-08, an organized indigenous industry can take care of 50 per cent of the domestic market, which could be roughly to the tune of US $3,500 million and can achieve a modest export of around US $ 2,000 million.

The estimated world market size of medical disposable imports is around US $ 1200 million per annum. Health care industry is currently witnessing a growth of 20 per cent and is likely to reach 50 per cent growth rate level, soon. The value of imports within five years is likely to be around US 7,000 million per annum. During the period, the world market is expected to touch US 260 billion.

The world market for coronary stents has been witnessing a rapid growth during the last one decade, and is worth approximately US $ 2 billion. With the advent of drugeluting stents, the stent market is likely to grow up to US $ 10 billion. Devices and disposables related to kidney, joints, cancer and other disorders have also gained significance, he added.

[Ref: Pharmabiz Hospital Review, dt. 31/05/04]