Zimmer Biomet Enters Pact With Health Institute In India
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Dan Spalding-dspalding@timesuniononline.com
Zimmer Biomet is making inroads on two fronts — robotic surgery and an increasing foothold in one of the fastest growing countries in the word, India. The Warsaw-based orthopedic firm announced on Wednesday a multi-year agreement with a health institute in India, according to a press release issued yesterday. The first phase of the collaboration with Indo UK Institutes of Health will involve the establishment of the Zimmer Biomet Institute of India, a 30,000-square-foot state-of-the-art medical training center in a city in eastern India. The Institute will train more than 1,000 orthopedic surgeons annually on the latest orthopedic procedures and effective use of Zimmer Biomet medical technologies, a press release from the company said. IUIH, in partnership with UK’s National Health Service, plans to build 11 “Medicities,” the press release said. Each “medicity” campus will include a 1,000-bed hospital, a medical and nursing school, student and staff housing, hotel facilities, and a third-party-run training and education center focused on a designated medical specialty, the company said. India has approximately 10 orthopedic surgeons per 1 million people, according to Zimmer Biomet. “This is inadequate to meet current demand for orthopedic care, let alone meet the anticipated surge in demand from India’s aging population, which is expected to triple by 2030,” said David Dvorak, president and CEO of Zimmer Biomet. “Zimmer Biomet’s partnership with IUIH addresses this immediate and critical gap in delivering patient care by providing much-needed continuing education and hands-on orthopedic surgical training,” he said. Zimmer Biomet is expected to invest more than $5 million in the King’s College Hospital training and education center over three years, beginning in 2017. Zimmer Biomet serves approximately 50,000 patients in India each year, and through its Zimmer Biomet Institute, has successfully trained nearly 7,000 surgeons, medical and nursing students, and paramedics since its launch in 2008, the release said. “The success of the Indo UK Institutes of Health’s Medicities program is predicated in part on the support and commitment of private industry, and I applaud Zimmer Biomet for being our first industry partner and underwriting and overseeing the development of the Zimmer Biomet Institute of India orthopedic training and education center in Amaravati,” said Ajay Gupta, CEO and managing director of the Indo UK Institutes of Health. Meanwhile, earlier this week, numerous online reports indicated Zimmer Biomet acquired Medtech, a France-based company that specializes in robotic surgery. Zimmer paid an estimated $77 million for a majority stake in Medtech, according to a report by xconomy.com. The move is viewed as an effort to stake out a role in the robotic surgery market, the story said. Medtech has two robotic surgical systems currently on the market that received approval for use by U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the story said. Calls to Zimmer for comment were not returned by early today.
