In an effort to provide the much-needed relief to scores of arrhythmia patients in India and emerging markets, MediVed Innovations Pvt Ltd for the first time has designed and developed international quality, affordable implantable medical devices for cardiac rhythm management. Marketed under the brand name 'Stellar' the range covers single and dual pace makers, cardiac leads, pacing system analyzers.

To begin with, MediVed has started providing around 60 devices to many health centres including Care Hospital, Hyderabad and is in advanced discussions with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi which treats large number of arrhythmia cases. Andhra Pradesh plans to include MediVed's pace makers under its Rajiv Arogya Sri comprehensive health insurance programme.

India accounts for 60 per cent of the world's heart patients and around 60 per cent cardiac fatalities are due to arrhythmias. As part of its long-term and strategic growth plans, the company appointed distributors in India, Africa and South East Asia. Distributors from Greece have also evinced interest. Enquires for OEM supplies for private labelling have come in from China and Spain.

"We are one of the six companies globally (3 from US and 2 from EU) to offer the advanced pace makers. Western markets account for over 90 per cent of the pacemaker sales. Pacemaker consumption in the US is 1,000 per million, EU is 1,200 per million and India is 15 per million," Dinesh Puri chairman & managing director, MediVed Innovations told Pharmabiz.

India's low consumption can be is attributed to the healthcare costs borne by individuals, Puri said. This is where MediVed comes in, offering pace makers at affordable costs. While it is priced at $7,000 to $10,000 in the US, MediVed is able to offer it at Rs 60,000 because of a high level of vertical integration, he added.

The two-year-old Bangalore-based MediVed earmarked a project plan fund of Rs 75 crore to set-up a world class research and manufacturing facility at the EPIP Area in Whitefield.

It acquired the core technologies of the 35-year-old South America-based CCC, a leading pacemaker design-production major. The inorganic growth effort allowed the company to make available 30,000 pacemakers of CCC that are backed by clinical safety data, extending lifespan of Indian patients by 8-15 years.

The facility is an ISO13485 and CE certified vertically integrated manufacturing plant with state-of-the-art equipment. It has a global supply chain to source implantable grade steel, platinum, titanium and iridium materials and components. There are also full fledged R&D and engineering capabilities to drive new products, draw up detailed manufacturing process and quality systems backed by clinical support network. Thus far, it has a team of 35 with expertise domains from micro electronics to polymer engineering.

Indian market size for pacemakers is 60,000 annually but there is a shortfall of 40,000, which MediVed intends to capitalize on. "We are educating doctors and cardiologists on the importance of increasing patient life span with pace makers. The 20,000 pacemakers sold annually in India are all imported, with Kolkata accounting for the most," said Puri.

MediVed is confident to register Rs 150 crore revenues by 2011. It perceives future opportunities in therapeutic devices to treat chronic pain, neuro stimulation for depression, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It is also in talks with venture capitalists to raise funds in the next three to six months for clinical support and global distribution. The company sees it playing a major role in the US, where president Barack Obama is propagating hi-tech-low-cost healthcare.