Opto Circuits to hire 500 staff in India; boosts medical devices production

 
Medical device maker Opto Circuits is planning to recruit 500 personnel this fiscal year in India.

Opto Circuit to boost its staff strength to two thousand mark to the present 1,500 level is part of its ambitious programme to double the workforce in India in coming years.

Opto Circuit, which makes medical devices including drug eluting stents, is targeting expand operations in India in view of the fast-emerging medical devices market in India.

Opto Circuit has already earmarked funds for staring a Greenfield manufacturing project at Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Nanjungad in Mysore, report said.

“Our focus will be on the emerging markets and India is the centre of action going by its market potential and manufacture-research capability,” stated Vinod Ramnani, chairman and managing director, Opto Circuits.

The company is also proposing a production centre in Malaysia.

Opto Circuits currently ranks third in India after Abbott Vascular and Meditronics medical devices products. Opto acquired  EuroCor, Germany — a manufacturer of drug eluting stents, bare metal and coated balloons – in the year 2006.

Early this year, Opto acquired the technology firm NS Remedies.

India is viewed as potential market for medical devices going by the increasing number of hospitals rise in patient population.

The market for medical devices is worth up to USD 3 billion and growing at more than 10 percent a year, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), drawing foreign firms such as GE Healthcare, a venture with Wipro, Siemens and Philips.

India seeks first-world technology at third-world prices. So India can also be a springboard for Africa and Latin America, which have similar needs, experts said.Among the segments in the medical devices market diagnostic equipment leads with Rs. 2000 crores, surgical equipment supplies worth Rs 1300 crores comes second and imaging and electronic treatment devices follow with Rs 1300 crores and  Rs. 1000 crores respectively.

The Indian medical equipment market is dominated by the medical instruments and appliances used in specialties such as ophthalmic, dental and other physiological classes. This segment accounts for 26% of the total market followed by orthopedic/ prosthetic goods segment accounting for 19% of the total market.

Medical supplies such as bandages and disposables such as syringes, needles and catheters together constituted 21% of the total market. The other equipment which are in demand are high end speciality electro medical equipments that accounted for 11% of the total market. X-ray apparatus accounted for 10% of the total market.

Another high growth segment in the medical devices industry is diagnostic kits. Diagnostic kits has a growth rate of 30% and a market size of USD 133 million in 2005. They include the reagents and the medical kits. With over fifty companies operating in diagnostic kits, the market has seen several interesting trends.

India’s healthcare industry, estimated at more than USD 30 billion, will double in value in five years, according to PWC.

GE Healthcare first assembled high-end ultrasound, CT and X-ray machines at its John F. Welch Technology Centre in Bangalore, with a staff of 2,200 focused on India.