THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Giving the development of indigenous medical devices in the country a shot in the arm, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan laid the foundation stone for MedSpark on Thursday.
A joint venture of Sree ChitraTirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) and KeralaState Industrial Development Corporation Limited (KSIDC) it will come up at the Life Science Park, Thonnakkal, here.
Speaking on the occasion, the CM said, "MedSpark will come up at nine-acre land of the Life Science Park. The total outlay of the project is Rs 230 crore. While the state's share of the project is Rs 150 crore, the Center's share will be Rs 80 crore. The initiative will bring aspects like research and development, testing, and evaluation of medical devices, manufacturing support, technology innovation and knowledge dissemination associated with medical devices under one umbrella. It will also help in employment generation as 1200 will get direct employment and up to 4000 – 5000 job opportunities will get created through the supporting industries like service providers and marketing/post-marketing support activities."
At the same time, Asha Kishore, Director, SCTIMST, said that Sree Chitra had conceived the idea of establishing a medical devices park under the Technical Research Centre for Biomedical devices program of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
According to the director, the role played by the state government, DST, various central government departments, Niti Aayog, former cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekhar and others were crucial for the MedSpark.
Earlier the institute in a statement released here said that the aspect that will distinguish the proposed initiative from other similar projects is its focus on the high-risk medical device sector involving medical implants and extracorporeal devices.
Currently, the state has a number of medical device companies with an annual turnover in excess of Rs. 750 crores, most of them operating with technologies transferred from SCTIMST. According to the institute, upon completion, the MedSpark will have, a medical device testing and evaluation center, a research and development resource center for facilitating research and development in the medical device domain, the services of which would be shared by the entities within the park and outside it, a knowledge center, a centralized unit for skill up-gradation with facilities for conducting training and provide support on regulatory issues, clinical trials, and others. The park will also have a technology business incubation center for promoting start-ups and early-stage companies.