Surat firm aims to topple Abbott to become number one stent maker

Backed by top PE players and price cap on stents, firm is also leaning heavily on a clinical study to achieve this end

Surat-based SMT (Sahajanand Medical Technologies), the number 2 player in the Indian market for stents after Abbott Healthcare, hopes to capture the pole position in two to three years.

The company is banking on a randomised clinical study conducted over 1,500 patients in Europe (in which half of the patients used Abbott stents, while the rest used SMT's. Doctors were not given a break-up) to boost its credibility and reach out to more cardiologists in the Indian market. The results of this study, done by a global clinical research organisation, will be out in September. 

"It would give us ammunition