The government is ready to market several low-cost medical innovations, including home kits for measuring blood glucose, hemoglobin levels and real-time diagnosis of malaria and dengue, which have been developed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in association with start-ups supported by the Center.

One of the kits is ‘AINA’ which can be fixed to a mobile phone and one can know the blood glucose, lipids, creatinine and hemoglobin levels. It will be marketed by a company which will get support from government institutions.

“One just needs to insert a strip to the device, which costs around Rs 10. The company has received orders for 25,000 such strips,” said Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser to the DBT and Managing Director of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

Besides ‘AINA’, the department on Tuesday showcased many innovative kits that would be marketed in the coming months.

Minister for science and technology Harsh Vardhan said India’s medical industry was the fourth largest in Asia and it would be worth $20 billion by 2025. “Innovation in healthcare and medical technology is especially of paramount importance and can accelerate the country’s social and economic growth. The benefits of innovations should reach the masses,” he said.

Another device showcased enables real time diagnosis of malaria, dengue and typhoid. Similarly, another one like the Limb Immobilization (LIMO) ensures that diagnosis of injuries is done without much disturbance to the patient after an accident.

“India witnesses 15 million accident cases, of which five million cases involve injury to limbs. The LIMO ensures that diagnosis of the patient can be done right from first aid to X-rays and MRIs by strapping this device to support the injured leg. This is a first of its kind in the world and costs only Rs 249,” said Balram Bhargava, a cardiologist and Executive Director at the School of International Biodesign, a DBT funded initiative.

Elaborating on innovations in medical technology, DBT Secretary Vijay Raghvan said BIRAC has supported nearly 300 start-ups and SMEs and 150 young entrepreneurs for innovation, research and product development.

He noted that attempts were being made to not only make these products globally competitive, but also market them well to ensure that the money invested by the government in either developing or promoting these low-cost medical facilities percolated to the ground level and gave relief to people.

Source: The Times of India