- Trivitron Healthcare in discussion with two auto majors to make 10,000 ventilators a year
- To make COVID-19 entire range of testing kits in India with Chinese technology
- Ties up with textile specialists for PPEs
- Scales up hand sanitiser manufacturing
- Mass production to begin at Chennai and Vizag in few weeks
India's largest domestic medical devices manufacturer Trivitron Healthcare is venturing into large scale local manufacturing of COVID-19 testing kits, ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanitisers to fight the COVID-19 crisis.
"We target to make 10,000 ventilators in a few weeks and is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a couple of leading automobile manufacturers for component supplies and assemblies," GSK Velu, chairman and managing director of Trivitron told Business Today. So far, the Rs 700-crore in-vitro diagnostics, imaging, intensive care, operation theatres and renal dialysis segments, was making only 500-700 portable and hospital specific ventilators in a year.
Trivitron, which has nine manufacturing facilities across five locations -- Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Ankara and Helsinki, will manufacture the COVID-19 products at its main facility in Chennai and at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh. The R&D centre in Mumbai will develop COVID-19 related medical products that can be sold anywhere in the world.
He said the company is also gearing up to start mass production of COVID-19 testing kits in India. At present, Trivitron imports COVID-19 confirmation assay real time RT PCR kit, Singleplex and Multiplex real time RT PCR Kit, RNA extraction kit and rapid test kits from its Chinese partner. "With local manufacturing, we are looking to sell at Rs 500-700 per test and is looking to provide half a million test kits a week," said Velu.
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In the case of PPEs, the company is scaling up production as it has teamed up with textile specialists in the field. Raw material shortage is an issue and supply constraints are expected to be sorted out by the next week. The Mumbai facility manufactures both pharma grade and cosmetic grade hand sanitisers and the company is also scaling up production manifold.
Trivitron is the only manufacturer of entire range of COVID-19 medical supplies except masks, said GSK Velu.
Also read: India levies 11.6% tariff on medical product imports against average of 4.8%: WTO study