Date : 03-Feb-2012

Edition : Delhi

Page No.: 13 Circulation: 19801

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Sector: Pharma, Healthcare And Biotech

AVE: INR 352308.49

News monitored for: GE Healthcare

Page 2/2 Economic Times http://economictimes.indiatime

Special Focus: Interface - Munesh Makhija

product in 65 countries in the world including India. So even though this product was developed in India this is an opportunity for reverse innovation. How do you decide on the investments to be made in particular areas in India? We look at it from two perspectives. In India it is a little dierent from the developed markets. There you can do a market study and say this is my market, here is my product and this is my market share, which is growing so fast and if I do this I will get there. A lot of Indian healthcare market is untapped and there is a huge opportunity to create a market. We have to look at it both qualitatively and quantitatively. We have to place our bets where the opportunity is. For example, we sell our portable ECG device not to cardiologists but to family physicians. So it is about building the right product and reaching the right market. One challenge that we have in India is that the market is very fragmented at that level. We do not know how to reach there, we do not know how they practice and they do not know who we are. So innovation is not only in the product, it is in the distribution channel; it is also in the business model, showing that a person buying the product for ` 25,000 can actually nd a way to pay for itself within nine months. Also, the more they practice more the patients they see and thus they can refer more patients. It is not only one product, one business model and one investment. We have to look at a diverse range of products. The focus on Indian market in terms of investments has grown by 3-4 per cent over the last several years and this will continue to grow. That is why we do what we do. Who are your strongest competitors in these three segments? The competitors fall in multiple categories. We have competitors such as large MNCs as well as local competitors. We have competition from low-cost destinations such as China and Taiwan. What we try to do is stay true to our kind of products, viz, no compromise on quality and product. Build products where the market is

Making a difference to the underserved population has been GEs strategy for growth in India
...says Munesh Makhija, CTO, GE Healthcare India. He discusses GEs strategy on making healthcare more accessible; and the parameters on which it measures itself.
Arshia Khan
What has been your strategy for growth in India? There are two distinct segments in the market. There is demand for premium healthcare products and these are as advanced and good as anything we sell elsewhere in the world; and there is a market that can aord these products. You will nd these products in top tier hospitals in metro towns. We have spent a lot of time advancing the search for these premium level products and sell it both in India and other markets. The second line of products are those which can create access for the underserved populations. Today, we may not have the ability to diagnose or treat a particular condition. It is more than just a cheaper version of the high-end products and it can make a dierence to the underserved population. So that has been our strategy on both fronts; ie, on high-end premium quality products as well as at the level where we can create access. Which are the most promising segments for GE Healthcare in India? In India, we are focused on four dierent promising segments and when we say promising we really focus on where the need is. We are focussing on some of the promising segments in India, which is infant and maternal mortality, baby warmers, incubators and phototherapy devices, ultrasound devices to detect pregnancy problems in a mother in a way where we are not waiting for it to become an emergency, and cardiology.

Early diagnosis as well as aordable treatment of cardiac diseases, and the products are ECG, or cardiac ultrasound, or aordable imaging through Computed Tomography (CT), those are for detection. For interventional systems we have platforms to do things such as angioplasty, stents insertion or other equipment used in an operating room or ICU where after an operation a patient can recover faster. For that, we have our low cost ventilators. The third one is cancer and breast imaging, etc, and basically all types of cancer in the body so that we can detect them. Are you looking at just low cost products in the Indian market or you plan to go in the APAC region? Not really. We have learnt lessons in the Indian market and those lessons are applicable for the MAC i products worldwide. We sell MAC cardiology

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Munesh Makhija
such that you can learn the lessons straight away; and that is how we dierentiate ourselves. How have the developments at GE been accelerated? GE has been in the medical device segment for decades and we have been manufacturing devices in India since 1989. We have been on this campus since 2001. GE invented X-rays. More recently we are concentrating on the miniaturisation of products such as the miniaturisation of ultrasound, ECG, etc are some of the products that we got to market rst. There is a lot of focus on innovation but it is not just for the sake of being rst but actually making a dierence and that is basically where the impact of GE is. What are your most protable ventures? All our products are protable otherwise we would not be dealing with them. With cost pressures in India the protability would be low not just for us but for everybody else. But inspite of all this I think there is a huge opportunity to learn and to develop technologies that would benet India. It is often believed that the rising cost of healthcare has been the rising cost of medical equipment. How is GE maintaining affordability and accessibility of healthcare? The examples speak for themselves in terms of the products that we have developed and invested in developing over the last few years. Taking down the cost of ECG work on. We look at how we are reducing the cost not only for ourselves but also for the procedure, for the patient and for the doctor. Are we improving quality, are the outcomes better in terms of what was practiced and what can be practiced? Is there an ability to create access to more people? That is how we measure ourselves. What are your plans for the next ve years? We are optimistic with regard to India. We are investing $ 200 million in a factory in Pune, across GE India including energy and aviation. We see that the challenge is not just market share but creating a market, and we are committed to go after that challenge. Targets you have set for yourself It is not about setting targets for oneself. It is about how far you go in innovation. When we are connected to the market place there are examples of innovation every year. And we are making a 0meaningful dierence.
(arshia.khan@infomedia18.in)

We look at how we are reducing the cost not only for ourselves but also for the procedure, for the patient and for the doctor.
machine by a factor of 10; cost of ventilator down by a factor of 5 and keeping them as eective as required. These are areas where we have a commitment and infact our strategy of Healthyimagination is how we evaluate some of our products that we

An invite that rewards as well...

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