CHENNAI: A delegation from 10 Israeli medical device firms are wooing the booming medical sector in the city for partnerships - ranging from import and procurement of devices to establishing clinical trials. According to sources, two companies are close to finalising agreements for clinical trials of their products with major city hospitals.
Led by Angela W Rabinovich from the Israel Export Institute and accompanied by Consul General of Israel in Bengaluru, Yael Hashavit and Avi Friedman, Consul for Trade and Economic Ties, Head of the Trade Section, the delegation had meetings with leading healthcare chains, including Apollo Hospitals and the SRM Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS) on Wednesday. The companies represented in the delegation are FirstCare, Vayyar, GlucoMe, CircMed, BeeCardio, Enzysurge, InSightec, MCS, Equatel and Aerotel.
“The main focus of the meeting was to make inroads into the large market and the delegation comprised a cross section of firms specialising in a variety of medical disciplines - oncology, diabetology, cardiology and orthopedics included,” said Friedman to reporters. The delegation will also have over 64 business-to-business meetings with various other hospitals and firms in the city on Thursday.
The meetings have gone well, say sources, with two companies in the delegation already close to reaching an agreements with a major city hospital for clinical trials of its devices. Using the Indian market for clinical trials are attractive to Israeli companies primarily because of the number and cross section of patients and the low cost.
“There are a large number of patients here and clinical trials in India are cheap, compared to doing them in Israel or even Europe,” said Friedman.
Hashavit also spoke of the overall status of the bilateral relationship between India and Israel. “Right now, we are in a honeymoon period. There is tremendous untapped potential in the development of economic co-operation,” she said, adding, “Israel is a country of start-ups, what we need from the Indian side is the expertise in scaling them up.”
Bilateral trade between the two countries currently stands at $4.5 billion, with the major sectors being IT, Chemicals, Agro tech and Plastics.
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Two Centres of Excellence in Agriculture in Tamil Nadu will be set up through a joint venture between the Israeli and Indian governments. The Centres for Excellence will be institutes where Israeli expertise and Indian knowledge in agriculture and agro-tech will be combined to educate and train Indian farmers in better practices. The two new Centres for Excellence will be focused on flowers and vegetables.