BCIL signs MoU with Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone

Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) hosted first of its kind Innovator’s Pitch Event in the domain of health technologies in the presence of panelists primarily from the manufacturing community.

Under the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog recently shortlisted AMTZ as an AIC incubation centre. The event was an outreach effort to enable incubates for the AIC, registered as AIC–AMTZ Medi Valley Incubation Council (Medi Valley).

In all, 16 teams participated from eight different states at the event held at PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, New Delhi, on Tuesday. The panelists from the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry, Subhash Punja, Managing Director, Dr GD Agarwal, CMD, Surgiwear and Ashish Dange, CEO, Ophtechnics.

Among other panelists, Vishal Gandhi from BioRx provided the much needed financial and go to market knowhow while Biraj Swain, Fellow-ICFJ Washington DC and Contributing Editor of Newslaundry suggested societal and outreach perspectives.

Such innovation pitch judged from a manufacturer’s point of view is unprecedented in the national start-up scenario. A selected number of incubates were shortlisted for initial incubation. The remaining were also selected for pipeline of prototype development for a longer timeline in view.

As a part of the event, Dr Jitendar Sharma, CEO of AMTZ,  spoke on the role such manufacturing focused incubation centre would play in the changing MedTech landscape of the country and how every single innovator could be supported in the process to promote indigenous manufacturing in this sector.

On the occasion, MoU signed between the Biotechnology Consortium India Limited represented by its Managing Director Purnima Sharma and Dr Jitendar Sharma, CEO of AMTZ