Relisys Medical Devices Limited, a city based manufacturer of critical care, introductory needles and other medical devices, will shortly commence the clinical trials of its Porous Carbon Drug Eluting Stent and several specialised catheters like diagnostic catheters, arterial sheaths and CVC catheters, etc, the company announced here last week.

"The clinical trials will be carried out simultaneously at AIIMS and RR Hospital, Delhi, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Care Hospitals, Hyderabad, SAL Hospital in Ahmedabad besides some other hospitals in the country", N G Badrai Narayan, Managing Director, Relisys Medical Devices, said in a press meet.

Recently the company had entered into a tie-up with Germany-based Cinvention AG, a technology company, to manufacture and market the coronary stent with pro-healing properties. As part of the tie-up, Cinvention is providing the carbon composite and super structure which can create the pro-healing properties, and Relisys is designing and manufacturing the device.

"The manufacturing will be commenced in a couple of months and the products will be available in the market from April 2007", Narayan said. According to the company sources, Relisys will be investing around Rs.40 crore during the year to further strengthen its business.

The company's manufacturing facility is located on one lakh sq ft area at Ibrahimpatnam near Hyderabad for which it has received the USFDA and is waiting for the DCGI approval. The unit includes a stent coating division and an integrated catheter manufacturing facility with in-house compounding, extrusion, injection moulding, sterilization and other facilities. "Our aim is to deliver cost-effective quality medical services in the domestic market as well as in Europe, North America and Asia", he added.

Narayan also announced that Prof William A. Haseltine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Haseltine Associates Ltd, has joined the Board of Relisys as Director. "Compared to other countries the cost of product development and manufacturing in India is very less with which the country can exploit the huge medical devices market to the fullest and supply the cost effective medical devices to other countries where the demand is high", Prof. Haseltine said.

According to Prof. Haseltine, the global market for medical devices is figured somewhere between $200-300 billion which is dominated by big firms.