Innovation is the key

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Last year, India's first domestically developed MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine was deployed in a hospital for clinical use. Voxelgrids, the company that made it, says the machines will be 40% cheaper. Given India's low per capita income levels and limited public health spending, lower costs translate to better access, and therefore inclusion. It's one reason why India unveiled a National Medical Devices Policy in 2023. It wants to reduce costs, increase supply and reduce import dependence. India's largest supplier is the United States, which also ranks high on innovation in medical devices. The challenge for India is to align its own ecosystem, including industry and academia, in a way that the country benefits from global innovation while boosting domestic innovation.

The global medical devices market is projected to cross $673 billion by 2029 from $478.5 billion in 2023. This growth is underpinned by several factors, including technological innovations, ageing population, rising healthcare expenditure, and prevalence of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.

One of the key drivers of growth has been innovation. In 2023, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved the highest number of novel medical technologies. "Medtech companies have created more than two million types of medical devices for patients and caregivers around the world," consulting firm McKinsey pointed out in a 2023 report, adding that they have "largely aligned their innovation priorities with areas of highest unmet need".
 
However, the costs of innovation have gone up. The number of approvals per billion dollars of R&D spend dropped from 195 in 2012 to 74 in 2022.

While India's medical devices market is expected to grow to over $10 billion by 2029 from $6.4 billion in 2023, it is primarily served by imports, estimated at over 70% of total market. Imports are increasing. According to data compiled by the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry, medical device imports increased by 21% in the 12 months ended October 2023.

India has a low per capita income. This is also reflected in its healthcare expenditure per capita, which is about 15% of the global average, according to Our World in Data. A similar gap is seen in medical device consumption per capita.
 
This has implications for the type of innovation India might need: focused on bringing costs down, such as the MRI machines from Voxelgrids. By some measures, India is making progress. The number of medical technology patents per year has been going up.

When consulting firm KPMG analysed 12 countries on medical devices innovation, the U.S. emerged as the top country. India came tenth.

See also:

Medtech mall