Hydrix from Carnegie, a suburb in the State of Victoria, Australia, a leading software and electronic design consultancy, is now looking at tapping opportunities in technology transfer and joint product development for range of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics with companies in India. The company is a mobile-wireless technology major and an award winner for developing innovative systems covering implantable, insertables, wearables, in-vitro diagnostics, point of care and laboratory test equipment.

Currently, India imports 70 per cent of its diagnostics from various countries and the high rate of custom duty has been detrimental to its indigenous manufacturers. Moreover, the country is home to a large diabetic population estimated at 61 million and there is an increasing incidence of life style disorders including hypertension and cardiovascular disease which requires POC diagnostics. The infusion of embedded technology in diagnostics can revolutionize healthcare in India.

“This is where Hydrix, is keen to chip in its expertise so as to help the Indian medical device industry come out with advanced diagnostics that would help its people in the far-flung remote villages to monitor their health parameters,” Peter Lewis, director, business development, Hydrix told Pharmabiz at the sidelines of interaction.

“India’s domination in information technology and large number of cell phone users, vast population and growing incidence of diseases has created a need for quick tests for early treatment protocols. With a decade of experience, we are now assessing the Indian market to understand the medical device industry and patient needs to tap the opportunities,” he added.

Specifically in India, we are looking at point-of-care and laboratory test equipment. There is also a huge opportunity to develop implantables too. Since, there is an impressive base of nine million cell phone subscribers in a  country with 1.2 billion population, we could develop a technology that can be linked to the mobile to test and report the information including ECG to  the closest hospitals, said Lewis.

The Indian medical technology industry can build its revenues from its domestic market with advanced and easy to use point of care systems. Hydrix can provide the high quality design software known for both functionality and regulatory compliance like FDA-510K, PMA and De Novo, CE and TGA design for production transfer and validation.

Hydrix has also interacted with over 25 companies in India which are a combination of start-ups and established players to look at collaborations or joint ventures. Considerable interest is evinced and we are hoping these discussions would get converted into potential business deals, said Lewis.

The size of the medical devices sector in Australia is estimated at Aus$ 300 million and Indian market for the same is valued at $2.5 billion in 2012.

The global slowdown of 2009 had impacted for a while but from 2012, there has been an increase in investments by 30 per cent. Even the Victorian Government under its Market Validation Programme has provided an Aus$ 20 million grant for three years for medical devices R&D, said Lewis.