Indian medtech’s just coming of age, and already has global ambitions
MUMBAI : India has long relied on global giants for medical devices to equip a healthcare network burdened by a lack of doctors, expensive treatments, and inadequate technology. Now, domestic medtech firms are taking the fight to their international peers, attracting interest from top-tier global investors and pharmaceutical giants. According to Indian government estimates, India is the fourth-largest market for medical devices in Asia.
Globally, though, India’s medtech sector claims a meagre 1.5% share, which market experts predict will grow substantially as global investors, including KKR & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Warburg Pincus, rush to back domestic medical equipment makers. Anish Bafna, chief executive and managing director of Healthium Medtech Ltd, sees India’s medtech sector seizing a 10-12% global market share by 2030, backed by India’s National Medical Devices Policy of 2023. “This ambitious target," Bafna said, “underscores India’s potential to become a global medtech hub." Bafna has good reasons for his optimism.
Last month, US private equity firm KKR & Co. won a bidding war to acquire Healthium from British PE firm Apax Partners for $700-800 billion. The medtech company manufactures and sells surgical products in about 90 countries.
India unveiled its medical devices policy with ambitions for the domestic medtech sector to account for 10-12% of the expanding global market over the next 25 years. Mansukh Mandaviya, former Union health minister, said last year that the government was “confident of fostering the medical devices sector’s growth from present $11 billion to $50 billion by 2030". Several domestic medtech firms are already credible challengers to multinational companies in India and global markets,
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