Chicago: Global conglomerate Siemens has made it clear that it will not compromise on quality and safety by reducing prices of its healthcare devices in India even though it considers the country a difficult market to sell its products.
“Overall, we see quite strong (growth) in India although we agree that India is a difficult country. Our plan is not to just reduce costs,” Siemens Healthcare global CEO Hermann Requardt said during a media interaction here.
Stating that the German company will not compromise on safety and efficacy of its products, he said: “We feel that (being) cost competitive is to translate what the clinical requirements are. We will not compromise on that.”
In India, there are local players manufacturing X-ray equipment with low voltages. “You get lot of dose but get very little imaging information. That is not our strategy,” he added.
On being asked whether the company was planning to expand its manufacturing facilities in India, Requardt said it will ramp up its present facility in Goa but it is not looking at setting up another facility.
“We have a strong basis in Goa, where we roll out equipment for local markets and that gives us momentum. We will increase our investments there because what is accepted in India is also accepted in Africa and other developing countries,” he said without divulging investment figures.
The company said it is not planning to set up another manufacturing unit because there is lot of potential in the Goa plant and it will be making more investments there.
Currently, its Goan facility manufactures a wide range of X-ray related products for both India and other countries.
Asked about regulatory issues related to the sector in India, Requardt said, “The regulatory issue so far has not hit us. We are monitoring India as something is cooking up there. That still needs to be understood.”
On new products launches for the next year, he said, “You can be assured that since we perceive ourselves as an innovation leader, our engineers are not sleeping. We are increasing our R&D efforts....You can expect something.”
Siemens Healthcare is one of the largest suppliers of healthcare technology in the world. It makes equipment for medical imaging, in-vitro diagnostics and clinical IT systems.
