TTK Healthcare plans to export artificial heart valves

Chennai-based TTK Healthcare Ltd, part of the diversified TTK Group, buoyed by the encouraging performance of TTK-Chitra Heart Valve Prosthesis in the domestic market, is now firming up plans to export these heart valves.

M Srinivasan, Managing Director of the company, told that the product performance has been comparable to the existing prosthesis being marketed in India by foreign companies and the company is taking this factor into consideration for export of the prosthesis.

He did not specify the countries where his company would be exporting. He said that the existing regulations in the overseas could be a hindrance but maintained that since the prosthesis is comparable to any other prosthesis manufactured by foreign companies it should not be a problem for them to match up to the requirement of the regulations fixed by overseas countries. The company had been exploring the possibilities of export since last year. The exploration was just a prelude to firming up plans for exports in the coming years.

TTK Healthcare Ltd has been marketing the prosthesis in the domestic market for the past two years, following an understanding reached with Shree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), who had developed the prosthesis. The company has been able to successfully commercialise the same. In the past two years, the company had so far been able to sell 14,000 units of the prosthesis in the domestic market at Rs.18,000, which is one third of the price of imported ones.

The company has a capacity to manufacture 10,000 valves per annum but has been manufacturing only 3,600 units currently. Srinivasan refrained from mentioning, whether the balance capacity would be used for exports. It all depends on the future demand of the prosthesis in the domestic market. The demand is expected to go up as per statistics available. In that case, the capacity of manufacturing will be increased but it is too premature to tell whether that will be warranted as of now, he added.

[Ref: Chronicle Pharmabiz, May 24, 2001]

First balloon valvuloplasty performed at Rajaji Hospital, Madurai

The non-surgical procedure of balloon valvuloplasty for removal of blocks in the heart was successfully performed free-of-cost on a 11-year patient at the Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai. This is for the first time that such a procedure was carried out at a government hospital in the state. The surgical procedure was carried out by a team of surgeons headed by cardiologist, Dr. S Murugan.

The patient, Munisamy has been suffering from breathlessness and chest pain ever since birth. He was brought to the hospital and clinical diagnosis showed that he had ‘congenital valvular pulmonary stenosis’, a disorder where the valves in the heart between the auricle and the ventricle are obstructed. In the case of Munisamy, the tri-cuspid valve on the right side of the heart was blocked.

It was decided to go in for a surgical procedure to remove the block. The decision to have balloon valvuloplasty was taken after a meeting of the surgeons. In this technique, there is no loss of blood for the patient as it is not a open heart surgery. Anaesehtsia also was not administered to the patient to remained awake throughout the procedure. Only a pain killer was given to the patient.

[Ref: Chronicle Pharmabiz, May 24, 2001]