Med- technology is one of the most exciting areas of innovation, especially for scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, executive leaders, policy makers and investors alike. To provide a better insight on the innovations taking place in the med-tech space, the Tech London Advocates’ (TLA), has teamed up with GrowthEnabler and Metayage, to share insights on key issues and opportunities impacting the sector and its transformation anticipated in the next 10 years. Now GrowthEnabler, an advisory services company is working to transform the growth potential of start- ups in the med-technology space. Rajeev Banduni, co-founder and CEO, GrowthEnabler believes that India would be the second largest med-tech market in the world by 2020. “There is tremendous growth and opportunity in this sector. We need to start focusing on funding for early stage med-tech companies, he tells Nandita Vijay in an interaction. Excerpts:
What are your views on the med-tech start-ups in the country?
The Indian med-tech sector is small compared to countries like the US, Japan, Germany and China. The Indian med-tech start-ups attracted only $258 million funding in the year 2015 which is the highest ever in a year. But it is a tiny portion of $27 billion being invested in med-tech totally around globe in 2015. If you look for med-tech start-ups which have raised more than $100 million in funding till date, India has only one company which is Practo that is at the forefront of digital healthcare when compared to her neighbour China, which has five companies.
What according to you are the recent innovations in med-technology that are expected to transform patient care?
We believe that in India, there is a need for making diagnosis and treatment accessible to remote areas besides reducing the skill requirement by enabling patients themselves and nurses etc to perform the basic aspects which would allow more physicians to support them wherever needed. In the developed countries, the challenges are different. One such challenge is in reducing Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) in hospitals.
What are the emerging visible trends in this space?
Most of Indian med-tech start-ups are focused on providing facilities like doctor’s appointment booking and video content instead of innovation. Indian start-ups are clearly lagging in sub-sectors like telemedicine, drug discovery and medical equipment.
What are the key issues that are stalling the growth of med-technology start-ups in India?
Indian med-tech start-ups are still in the nascent stages of prototyping, testing, validation etc. Not many are ready for the market entry. I take the opportunity here to quote Arjun Bala who is also the Founder and Managing Partner at Metayage IP Strategy Consulting, an intellectual property legal consultancy who views that Indian med-tech start-ups are not thinking about being global and targeting international markets. Metayage IP Strategy Consulting was one of the organisers of the 'Innovation in MedTech’ held in Bengaluru in July 2016 at Bengaluru.
As per GrowthEnabler, when it comes to spending on healthcare, India falls at the bottom in terms of spending proportion of GDP (gross domestic product) on healthcare because it accounts a mere 4.1per cent of GDP. Dearth of government’s focus on healthcare and innovation along with a boom in the number of undisruptive, copycat businesses modelled on successful start-ups are the main reasons, which are stalling med-tech growth in India.
How different are the start-ups and early stage companies in the developed world and what does India need to imbibe?
The need of the hour is definitely healthcare and India needs to focus more on this sector. This will create more options for revenue generation for med-tech start-ups. When it comes to India, cost-effectiveness is an indispensable factor, so every start-up in this segment needs to keep this in mind. In India, one can’t follow the same model which has been successful in countries like the US where healthcare spend is the highest at 18 per cent of GDP because the med-tech environment in such countries is entirely different from India.
In your view how much would the Union Government’s Start-up India initiative spur growth prospects?
Till date, the Start-up India initiative is yet to make an impact. This is because, out of 728 applications only one start-up has been selected for tax benefits under the Start-up India scheme. So we are yet to see start-ups benefiting under these initiatives.
To quote Arjun Bala again who said that the Government has an enterprise called BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) which is doing a good job, but innovation is only happening at a few centres such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. There is a need to promote innovative ideas across India. In med-tech, since it is research oriented, the impetus has to come from universities and collaborations between universities, start-ups, and large companies through technology transfer, licensing, and spin offs. IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights) too play a key role and the government will need to extend patenting concessions to universities as they are doing for start-ups. The government will also need to provide reimbursements for international patenting even related to med-tech on similar lines that is being extended to sectors like electronics and information technology (IT) through DEITY which is the Department of Electronics and IT.
The government has recently indicated that need of the hour is incubators. Could you comment on the same?
Currently, under the Start-up India initiative, only government-run 278 incubators are allowed to certify and recommend start-ups. India definitely requires more incubation centres to accommodate more start-ups. The government has recently certified 20 private organisations, including Nasscom and iSprit(Indian Software Product Industry Round Table as incubators. Even 10 years ago, there were over 270 incubators in the UK, as per Her Majesty’s Treasury. Being among the top five largest start-up ecosystems in the world, these numbers do not satisfy the demand for accelerators and incubators in the country.