Siemens Healthineers, a German medical technology company, says that India houses more than half (54%) of the company’s total software and digital talent, which contributes to global healthcare access and digitisation. Currently, it employs almost 7000 people in India, and more than 3200 of them are software and digital experts.
The company announced a global strategy called the ‘new ambition’. It will concentrate on multiple growth vectors over the next three years.
While speaking to businessline, Vivek Kanade, Managing Director, Siemens Healthineers India, said, “For us, what is relevant in India are three of the growth vectors: access to care, comprehensive cancer care, and cardiovascular and neurovascular care.”
Also read: Access to capital, regulatory reforms key to boost innovation in pharma industry: CEOs
The term ‘access to care’ refers to a variety of concepts, including the ability of technology to provide access to care through technologically or digitally-enabled services, according to Dileep Mangsuli, Development Centre Head, Siemens Healthineers.
“Today, software is actually turning out to be a powerful tool in bringing integrated solutions across the company. Our team from the Bengaluru development centre plays a significant role with regard to software and digital contributions to care,” Mangsuli added.
Also read: Hyderabad will be positioned as the ‘Health Tech Mecca’ of the world: Minister KT Rama Rao
Manufacturing in India
Siemens Healthineers has two manufacturing facilities: one in Vadodara for diagnostics and one in Bengaluru for medical imaging products (CTs, MRIs, and C-arms). It also has a global software development centre in Bengaluru.
“Currently, we manufacture more than 500 units of C-arms annually and export those to 54 countries. In addition to that, we produce 500 units of CTs and will start the manufacturing of MRIs in a few months, where we would annually produce around 100 units,” said Kanade.
Also read: Medical devices sector: Looking to not lose the momentum gained during the pandemic
He added that the company is in an expansion phase and that with the new campus, more business verticals and capacity expansion, are in the works. It is in the process of setting up a new campus—an R&D centre and manufacturing hub for medical technology solutions—for which it had previously announced investments of ₹1300 crore.
India’s healthcare market
Consider any key performance indicator (KPI) in the Indian market, whether it is population and doctor ratios or patient beds per 1,000 population; it is clear that there is a huge gap between what India has and what India needs in terms of healthcare delivery—indicating strong market growth, the MD noted.
“In spite of all of the issues, such as price sensitivity, low reimbursement rates, and everything else, we estimate the Indian healthcare sector to grow in the range of 10 to 12 per cent over the next decade.”
Furthermore, he said that the company is bullish on the Indian market, as they have the tools, attitude, technology, and manpower to address the Indian market in a more meaningful way than probably anybody else.
“And now, with our acquisition of Corindus and Varian, we are the company that covers the entire spectrum—from prevention to diagnosis to therapy and post-therapy follow-up. Moreover, connected technologies throughout the whole digital domain are going to be the key to this, and we are extremely bullish.”