Opto Circuits, a medical devices provider, said it is planning to expand in a big way in India from FY21 onwards. The company designs, develops, manufactures, markets and distributes a range of medical products that are used by healthcare establishments in more than 150 countries. In an interview with Medical Equipment & Automation, Vinod Ramnani, Chairman, Opto Circuits talks about the company, the medical device industry and the healthcare sector in India.
Could you give us a brief overview on your business activities in India?
Opto Circuits Ltd is an established global medical devices and technology group with a diversified product portfolio which is headquartered in Bangalore. We have subsidiaries that are engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of a range of medical products which are used by primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare establishments. Opto Circuits specialises in vital signs monitoring, emergency cardiac care, vascular treatments and sensing technologies. We also manufacture interventional products like stents, balloons both drug eluting and non-drug eluting and AV shunts used for treatment of coronary and peripheral arterial diseases as well as catheters and implants that are inserted in the human body. We have proprietary technology with respect to the design and development of these products allowing us to differentiate these from competing devices. Some of our well-known brands in this segment are Dior, Freeway, E-Magic Plus, Genius Magic, Siro Prime, Freeway hunt Balloon Catheter.
Opto’s major business comes from their subsidiaries in USA and Germany and these companies caters to America, Europe and South East Asia.
Tell us about the recent strategic partnerships forged by Criticare Systems Inc. – one in Europe and one in US. Could you throw some light on the nature and duration of both the agreements?
These two agreements are to supply medical equipment and invasive products. We are currently working with many players in both US and Europe to increase our penetration of products in to the market and we have been getting encouraging response for the same.
What kind of response do you expect from the new launches?
Recently we have launched Unetixs Vascular Inc., an Opto Circuits group company, a leader in non-invasive vascular technology, which has released the next generation Multilab Vascular system. Multilab ROODRA is among the first in the industry to provide extreme flexibility and configurability. This one touch, fully functional vascular system provides a 24-inch touchscreen monitor on a multi-axis mount for economically correct usage. We are currently not looking for any acquisitions. We are strengthening our distribution network across the world and aggressively marketing our products across the world.
What are your marketing plans for the new products?
Opto Circuits had diversified product portfolio that caters to the different healthcare system and our establishment is well-balanced and includes technologies that command high profit margins and allows to achieve sales and distribution synergies coupled with economies of scale. The global distribution network is supported by a large team of third-party distributor and highly qualified international team of sales personal spread across Europe, US and other parts of the world. We have extensive distribution, sales and services network allows to be closer to end – users and enable us to be more responsive to market demand. Opto has been in the medical device business since 1992 and have established long-standing relationships with the physicians, general practitioners and specialists, clinics and hospitals. We always believe that our long-term relationships and the quality of our customer base are the key strengths that enable us to expand our business and operations.
How do you plan to leverage the low-cost operations in India to manufacture and market products in the matured western markets?
We have manufacturing plants in Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam for a long time. We have been leveraging low cost operations in India. In developed markets, the medical equipment and invasive products manufactured in the US or in Europe are preferred, so for these markets we manufacture in these two large facilities in the USA and Germany. We have been working with OEMs like Philips for manufacturing sensors as a part of our medical devices segment of business, some of it is done in India.
What’s your take on the quality of medical devices manufactured in India?
Worldwide products made in USA and Europe are preferred in medical devices and invasive products. There are some players in other segment of medical equipment and have been doing well in the country. India is currently importing majority of medical equipment from China which is of not a great quality and there is no good service support for these equipment.
Currently we are focussing on our USA and Germany manufacturing plants and we are planning to expand in a big way in India from FY21 onwards. There is tremendous potential in India and we will definitely cater to this market with good support of after-sales service which is very key for medical equipment business in India.
What are your plans for the Indian market?
The Indian medical device market is growing steadily. It was valued at US$ 3.5 billion in 2015 and could expand to approximately US $4.8 billion by 2019. As India’s economic, healthcare and social landscape evolve, its medical device market emergencies as promising opportunity for foreign manufactures. Opto has been in to this business for more than two decades and strived to achieve many unique patents both in domestic and international markets. There is 100 years of opportunity in India in this sector as there are not many players in medical devices segment in the country and this business has 30 per cent of EBIDTA, which is very attractive. Nursing homes across India are going to drive market for monitors.
