S3V earmarks INR 140 crore for setting up a state-of-the-art integrated facility for the development and manufacturing of medical devices
Hyderabad, December 06... Bangalore based start up company S3V Vascular Technologies floated by four classmates of founding batch of PGPMAX at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad announces the launch of new company and its first product India's first Bioabsorbable Endovascular Drug Coated Stent "Avatar".
Disclosing this addressing a press conference in city today, Mr. N.G. Badari Narayan, Managing Director of the venture who brings in domain knowledge and technical expertise said that as a first step towards achieving this mission the company will launch India’s first Bioabsorbable Endovascular Drug Coated Stent “Avatar” for animal trials on 6th December, 2011. Metal stents are widely used and have been the standard of care for coronary heart disease; however, they have their limitations. Stents made of polymeric bioabsorbable materials (such as our “Avatar”) can achieve the same results in a highly patient friendly manner and at an affordable cost.
Explaining how it works, Mr. Badari added that the “Avatar” not only restores blood flow by opening a blocked vessel, but most importantly it releases a pro-healing drug during its entire life span (about 18 months) and dissolves away after fulfilling its life-saving vessel support role. Once the stent is dissolved, the vessel can then resume its natural function of vasomotion (constriction and dilation). Unlike metal stents, there is no danger of late stent thrombosis (clotting) and generally no need for long term anti-platelet therapy. Patients with “Avatar” will be able to undergo CT and MRI scans and will also be able to undergo further surgical interventions if necessary.
Once installed, this unique product releases anti-proliferative drugs for the first 90 days and pro-healing drugs during its dissolving phase. During the dissolving phase, the vessel wall continues to heal and remodel due to vasomotion. This leads to natural healing and normal vasomotion once the stent is dissolved, he informed.
Out of the total outlay of INR 140Cr, Promoters brought in the INR 20Cr. Followed by 30 Cr to be raised from strategic investors and rest through loan from banks. The pilot plant will be ready by the April 2012 and will be capable of manufacturing the current generation bare stents and drug eluting stents. The integrated facility will be ready in next 18 months and will have facilities to produce the bioabsorbable scaffholds. The location for the integrated plant will be decided in few weeks from now, said Mr. N.G. Badari Narayan.
Talking on the occasion Mr. Ajit Rangnekar Dean of Indian School of Business (ISB) said Mr. N.G. Badari Narayan, Dr. Chava Satyanarayan, Mr. Aju Jacob and Mr. Ravi Prayaga met at the founding batch of PGPMAX at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in 2010 and completed the course this year. It is a matter of pride for us at ISB that the very first batch has produced a business plan to build a highly-efficient world-class plant which will enable the manufacturing of hi-tech globally competitive medical devices at affordable costs. Their mission being; “To provide affordable life saving medical devices” is very laudable and I wish their venture a success. We at ISB are happy transforming our business management students into entrepreneurs. Given entrepreneurship's potential to support economic growth, it is our goal to develop a culture of entrepreneurial thinking said Dr. Ajit Rangnekar.
Speaking on business plans, Dr. Chava Satyanarayan, Director added that the company aims to develop next-gen products in Intervention Cardiology, Neurology, Peripheral and Endovascular treatments. The company also aims to establish itself in certain niche areas of current global research and to develop internationally patentable technologies by working closely with leading clinical research groups in India and abroad.
The future product line of the company would not only include a variety of stents for all applications but also the catheters, disposables and other devices used in various angiographic procedures in radiology and cardiology. Currently India imports these devices at a very high cost, resulting in an increase in the cost of critical life-saving treatments. The company aims to produce these globally competitive devices locally and offer the same to domestic consumers at affordable prices. These devices can further be exported adding to the revenues of the company and bringing in valuable foreign exchange for the nation.
As part of the corporate strategy the company would also form JV’s with suitable partners to spin-off its technology and gain access to other specialty areas. Given the lack of a developed vendor ecosystem for such hi-tech medical devices in India, the company aims to help build a strong vendor base by either forming JV’s or by transfer of technology.
Ravi Prayaga, Director - Projects explained that the company has earmarked INR 140 crores for setting up a state-of-the-art integrated facility for the development and manufacturing of these devices. This facility is being designed as per USFDA norms and will be constructed on 15 acres of land at Bangalore with a built-up area of 2 lakh sq. ft. including 50,000 sq. ft. of Class 10K clean room. This facility will house a manufacturing area where bioabsorbable polymers will be formulated, precision tubes will be manufactured and scaffolds will be fabricated. It will also have an integrated R&D facility for drug delivery, cell culture, analysis, metallurgical and design laboratories in line with product development abilities.
Aju Jacob, Director commented that the incidence of cardiovascular disease in India has considerably risen since 1960. It was estimated that about four percent of the adult population was suffering from heart diseases in 1960. Presently, the number has almost tripled raising it to about 11 percent in 2007. About 80 million people are said to be suffering from cardiovascular diseases in India.
The market for interventional cardiology products in India is growing in line with a dramatic rise in cardiovascular disease among increasingly affluent and urbanised Indians with a resulting surge in demand for high quality cardiac care. Established interventional cardiology procedures-diagnostic angiography, PTCA and coronary stenting, among others-are performed widely in India, across medium-sized and larger hospitals equipped with catheterisation laboratories. More advanced procedures and devices are concentrated at large corporate and private hospitals in key metropolitan cities.
An estimated 28.9 million Indians suffer from at least one cardiovascular disease or disorder with disease prevalence tripling over the past 30 years. The overall interventional cardiology products market in India will experience strong growth from approximately $249.3 million in 2008 to an estimated $635.7 million in 2012, an estimated compound annual growth rate of 26.4%. Key demand drivers include a surge in disease incidence due to affluence and lifestyle changes, resulting increase in demand for diagnosis and treatment, and infrastructure expansion driven partly by a fast-growing cluster of corporate hospitals, among other factors.
The global market for Coronary Stents is forecast to reach US$9.8 billion by the year 2017, spurred chiefly by aging population, rising obesity rates and increase in consumer spending power. Further, technological advancements, growing awareness and substantial clinical evidence supporting the efficacy of stents drives high penetration levels, particularly in the affluent, developed markets.
The future holds ample scope for development of the coronary stents market given the huge demand and the large number of high-profile innovations underway, particularly in the field of bioabsorbable coronary stents. Untapped, developing markets of Asia will propel rapid growth and expansion in the market
Issued for and on behalf of S3V by: Solus Media, Devraj Solanki, Mobile: 9393355987