Kerala medical devices park to make high-risk implants

Chennai: Kerala has managed to bag one of the four medical device parks proposed to be set up by the government. The other three have reportedly gone to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, leaving Karnataka as the only southern state not to have been favoured.

As part of the atma nirbharta policy of the Union government, these parks will provide a full range of services to the medical devices industry, including R&D support, testing and evaluation.

The Kerala facility is named MedSpark, and it will be located within the Life Science Park in Thiruvananthapuram. It is a joint initiative of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (KSIDC).

MedSpark will produce medical implants and extracorporeal devices. It will create an enabling support system for R&D, testing and evaluation of medical devices, manufacturing support, technology innovation, and knowledge dissemination.

These facilities located within MedSpark will be accessible to institutions from other parts of the country as well. It will benefit small and medium-sized medical devices industries, which dominate the medical devices sector.

The aspect that will distinguish this medical device park from the other similar projects proposed is that it will focus on high-risk medical devices, a domain in which SCTIMST has considerable expertise and experience, according to DST secretary Ashutosh Sharma.

Kerala has a number of medical device companies with an annual turnover in excess of Rs 750 crore. Most of them operate with technologies transferred from SCTIMST.

MedSpark is billed to create direct employment for 1200 people in addition to enabling 4000-5000 jobs in supporting industries like OEM suppliers, service providers, and marketing/post marketing support activities.