Dr Sheela CN, head of the obstetrics department at St. Johns Medical College Hospital in Bengaluru, seems pleased with a new product she's testing to detect fetal distress during childbirth. "We are testing this device to see if it can help us (diagnose) high-risk problems during delivery earlier than the existing devices. That will help us intervene and prevent adverse effects on the baby," she said.
Undetected fetal distress—such as when an unborn child does not receive enough oxygen— account for about 3 lakh fetal or child deaths in India every year, according to the World Health Organisation. Existing technology to detect fetal distress is too expensive and, thus, not easily accessible. It is also too complicated even for doctors.
Taking on the global giants that dominate India's medical devices industry and despite unfavourable domestic regulations, these startups promise to make lifesaving medical technology more accessible in a country where quality and affordable healthcare is scarce, especially in any place that's not a major city.
Sattva CEO Vibhav Joshi said the idea for Fetal Lite, which Sheela is testing, came from his gynaecologist mother who uses the only approved device type available in India to screen for fetal distress. It is huge, requires constant power supply and a skilled obstetrician to be present at all times to interpret the data it sprouts.
He plans to price the device at around Rs 1 lakh, about two-thirds cheaper than devices manufactured by General Electric and Philips. Sattva has so far raised a seed round from InnAccel and a grant from BITS Charitable Trust.
India's medical devices industry is growing at about 15 per cent annually and is expected to reach at least $25-30 billion (Rs 1.65-1.98 lakh crore) by 2025, according to a report in March by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, driven by indigenous manufacturing, exports and local innovation. But the industry is fragmented, price-sensitive and faces constraints such as erratic power supply, low doctor-patient ratio and a shortage of trained personnel to handle complex devices, pain areas startups are trying to tide over to achieve market acceptance.
"We are seeing Indian medical devices startups being able to innovate and bring products to the market faster than their western counterparts at a price point that is very attractive," said Barath Shankar Subramanian, vice president at venture capital firm Accel Partners, an early backer of Forus Health, a maker of affordable eye-screening devices, and Perfint Healthcare, which works in the areas of cancer and pain care.
"We will continue to identify and invest in such differentiated opportunities," Subramanian said. Accel has 10 healthcare technology startups in its investment portfolio.
Remidio, which makes eye-care diagnostics technology, has so far commercially launched two products — smartphone-based Fundus on Phone and Angio on Touch diagnostic imaging system. While obtaining a complete image of the retina would require a wide-field imaging camera that costs about Rs 65 lakh, Remidio's Fundus on Phone, priced Rs 1.8 lakh, can connect to a mobile phone camera to take pictures of the central part of the retina. It is highly useful in early detection of diabetic retinopathy.
"This is a marathon, not a sprint," said Anand Sivaraman, CEO at Remidio, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus who previously worked at General Electric and biotechnology firm Reametrix. His startup, has raised $1 million from UK based Welcome Trust and a group of angel investors. The startup has achieved 300 installations across hospitals and private opthalmologist clinics in the past 22 months.
There are scores of startups dotting India's medical technology sector focused on niche, marketable segments. Coeo Labs has designed a device to tackle ventilator-associated pneumonia, a major cause of death in roughly 40 per cent of patients on breathing support in India.
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