Philips Medical Systems India Pvt Ltd is evaluating the option to set up a subsidiary in India to manufacture its range of medical and diagnostic equipments in the country. The plan is to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary or to have a joint venture.

So far, the company has resorted to import its equipments from its parent's manufacturing bases in Germany, US and Holland.

"We are in the process of evaluating our plans. Our aim is to set up a manufacturing subsidiary in India. It could be a full subsidiary or a JV after tying up with a local partner," said senior officials in Philips Medical Systems India. MNCs like Philips are seeking benefit from the low cost input and at the same time high quality output nature of the Indian market," said officials.

Major equipments manufactured by the company in the country include, cardiac and monitoring devices, CVS X-Ray, defibrillators, X-Ray, MRI, patient monitoring devices, telemonitoring services, and Radiation Oncology Systems. The idea is to manufacture some of these devices in its subsidiary in India.

Analysts estimate the medical equipments market at Rs 7,500 crore in 2004, growing at an annual rate of 12 per cent.

"With more private hospitals and hospital chains like Apollo, Max, Escorts and Wockhardt opening up, the medical equipments market will remain bullish. Seeing them, even government and municipal hospitals have begun their shopping for high quality equipments," said market analysts.

According to a Frost & Sullivan study, the Indian medical equipment & devices market was estimated at Rs 6,532 crore in 2001. This was almost double the market size in 1993. The break up of the 2001-Frost & Sullivan report include -General Surgery (Rs 3,064 cr), Imaging (Rs 1,109 cr), clinical instrument (Rs 570 cr), critical care (Rs 322 cr), cardiac surgery (Rs 262 cr), self care (Rs 300 cr), opthalmology (Rs 239 cr), urology (Rs 147 cr) and others (Rs 515 cr).

GE, L&T, Hitachi and Siemens are some of the other players in the Indian medical equipments market. These equipments invite an import duty of 25 per cent.