Siemens Healthineers opens its biggest manufacturing plant in Bengaluru

The firm is also trying to create a start-up ecosystem to collaborate with healthcare start-ups and commercialise their ideas in the India market

As part of its India expansion plan, German medical technology company Siemens Healthineers has opened its biggest India manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. Spread over an area of 5,000 square feet, facility is co-located with the company’s R&D centre here, the biggest for the diagnostics imaging company globally.

The manufacturing facility will have two production lines, one for its mobile C-arm for surgery called Cios Fit and computed tomography (CT) systems based on its Somatom.go platform. The company would soon be going worldwide with the locally manufactured C-arm and start selling the product beginning with emerging markets. The Cios Fit equipment was ideated and developed from scratch at the Bengaluru R&D facility which provides powerful imaging for orthopedic trauma, spine, pain management, gastro and urology surgeries, whereas the CT systems will be assembled in the India plant.

“India will become the third largest market for us by 2030. It is currently the eighth biggest market for us and we are looking forward to more healthcare investments in India,” said André Hartung, Executive Vice President Computed Tomography and incoming President Diagnostic Imaging, Siemens Healthineers.

The company which has around 3,100 employees in India, including 1,900 software engineers will be hiring 70 people for the new manufacturing facility, which will be extended in phases by 2025. Siemens Healthineers other medical imaging facilities are located in the US, Germany, Brazil and China.

Gerd Hoefner, MD and President of Siemens Healthcare, said the manufacturing unit is just one step in strengthening presence in India and the company will further build more competence in artificial intelligence, cyber security, and digital technology and establish teams to work on them. It has so far invested Rs 2,500 crore in India.

The euro 13 billion company is in talks to invest further in new units in India. It is also trying to create a start-up ecosystem to collaborate with healthcare start-ups and commercialise their ideas in the India market.

Siemens Healthineers is a separately listed company, majority of whose shares are owned by Siemens AG. The company had last year started a diagnostics manufacturing facility at Vadodara, Gujarat, with an aim to help deliver better outcomes to patients and significantly reduce their wait time for results and revisits.