Cardiovascular technology company, Vascular Concepts is investing Rs.15
crore to set up a dedicated R&D, design and manufacture of
endovascular medical devices. This will cater to the requirements of
the national and global markets.

The company has stated that this
is the country’s first facility to develop vascular stents, drug
eluting vascular stents and vascular stent grafts that aid the practice
of less invasive therapy and address peripheral arterial diseases. The
15,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility is located 60 kilometre from
Bangalore at Doddaballapur which will be a quality system certified of
the highest international standards.

The company’s manufacturing
collaboration with Eucatech AG of Germany where all its devices are
manufactured until now will continue to remain, in addition to the new
domestic unit.

The Rs.150 crore
company is the only Indian company with an extensive patent portfolio of
32 technology patents from US, 12 of them for its stents alone. It
accounts for a 25 per cent market share in the estimated Rs.
500 crore domestic market for endovascular medical devices. It also
bagged the Alexandria-Frost & Sullivan award for excellence in
Indian healthcare under the ‘Indian medical devices company of 2010’
category earlier this year.

We have established a strong and
innovative portfolio of products with our strong R&D focus over the
last few years, that provides us a firm foothold for future growth. Our
focus over the next three years is to expand our market size across
regions and the unit will help us add capacity and provide us the scale
to expand faster, stated Swaminathan Jayaraman, CEO, Vascular Concepts.

“Growing
rate of high risk factors such as average hypertension and cholesterol
levels, excessive smoking, hectic urban lifestyles and presence of
genetic and co-morbid influences are responsible for the rising
incidence in heart diseases globally and in India. Treatment
technologies and methods have vastly improved in the last few years and
this clubbed with increase in screening initiatives will help us address
the rise in cardio vascular diseases more effectively. The design
requirement of cardiovascular technology is becoming increasingly
complex with the success of minimally invasive procedure and our R&D
focus has ensured we have a leading edge in this area, which we now
look to capitalize”, he added.