Covidien , Inc. a US-based manufacturer of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, and an Amritt client, has set up its first research and development center in Hyderabad, India. Business Line reported.
“The Indian healthcare devices market is part of our focus on emerging markets. The Hyderabad center will enable us to improve product time to market and create valued-innovation,” according to Robert Frechette, Vice-President (Engineering Services).
Stating that the company had over 14,000 patents worldwide, with another 12,000 patent applications pending, Frechette told the Business Standard that idea to set up an R&D center in India was primarily to support the company’s entire operations globally. Besides generating ideas from here, filing global patents from here was also on the cards, he said.
“We currently spend 5 per cent of our revenues on R&D, which we plan to increase to about 6 per cent starting this year,” he said, adding that the company had so far launched over 100 new products and expected to launch more than 50 products over the next two years.
Apart from designing products to suit local market needs, the R&D unit would utilise India’s huge talent pool to provide a range of engineering services for the company’s medical products business. The company plans to hire over 350 professionals for the centre over the next two years. Some 30 people are already working at the 40,000-square-foot facility.
Mr Arjun Sarker, Managing Director — Indian sub-continent, Covidien, said the business focus in India would be on surgical solutions and medical devices, though the company is strong in the pharmaceuticals business too.
