The Surat-based Sahajanand Medical Technologies Private Limited (SMTPL), an international medical device company is planning for a joint venture with France-based Cathenet Science for its upcoming facility at Daman.

The French partner is offering design and technology services to manufacture stents with balloons at SMTPL' s new facility, which forms part of the company's Rs 15-crore expansion programme, K Jyotsna, area manager- Hyderabad, SMTPL told Pharmabiz.

As of now, the construction work at the facility is in progress and the quality control analysis of these stents is being carried out by Dr Patricks Serryus at Thorax Centre. The new facility would start commercial production by mid 2005. The company is also to set up an R & D centre at Daman. The company has already been manufacturing stents at its existing facility at Daman.

The company had been manufacturing and marketing Paclitaxel eluting stent by brand name 'Infinnium', which utilises proprietory and proven biodegradable polymer matrix. Unlike the non-biodegradable stents, which cause life- time inflammation, Infinnium, which is bio- degradable causes inflammation only for a shorter period. The stents are exported to various countries including Brazil, Switzerland, China, Kuwait, and Nepal. The stents have Conformity to European Standards.

Stents are usually helpful in postponing the bypass surgery. The decreasing prices of stents have lead to the reduction in the number of patients opting for bypass in the recent past. A bypass costs about Rs 1 lakh- Rs 1.5 lakh, wheras a stent comes for about Rs 80,000, she informed.