In an attempt to fill the gap between the demand and supply of ventilators and essential medical equipment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone (AMTZ) has inked a pact with the U.K. government.
Manufacturing support
As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on July 31 under the UK-India Tech Partnership programme, innovative Indian medtech startups are invited to apply by August 31 to be a part of the new ₹5.6 million manufacturing support programme.
The selected startups will be hosted at the AMTZ’s MediValley incubation centre and they will receive financial, technical and infrastructure support necessary to make their equipment market-ready.
The pact aims at boost the medtech collaboration between the two countries by creating direct research and development linkages between the U.K. companies and AMTZ’s manufacturing and testing facilities, and to the healthcare market in India.
“The fight against coronavirus needs a global response. New partnerships born at this juncture of adversity can make a difference. The collaboration with the AMTZ facility Visakhapatnam is exciting. This project will help the promising startups accelerate the process of getting their innovative designs market ready through a combination of financial, technical and infrastructure support,” says Andrew Fleming, British Deputy High Commissioner to AP. and Telangana.
AMTZ CEO and Managing Director Jitendar Sharma says the pact will encourage innovations in the manufacturing of medical devices, especially those necessary for fight against the pandemic. “The British High Commission and AMTZ aims at encouraging innovators by providing them with technical, technological, financial, entrepreneurial and strategic handholding. It will enable them to leapfrog from idea to innovation and from a startup to an established enterprise,” he says.
Elligibility criteria
Indian startups, MSMEs and innovators are elligibble to apply for the project. This includes those at prototype, development, pilot, validation, early traction, and scaling stages. Further details are available on the AMTZ website and British High Commission’s social media pages. The deadline for submitting application is August 31.
As part of the programme, selected startups will have access to the state-of-the art infrastructure support, technical guidance from experienced mentors, domestic and international sourcing support, manufacturing scale-up support, collaboration opportunities with the the U.K. and Indian medtech firms.
The AMTZ is an enterprise under the Government of Andhra Pradesh dedicated to medical device manufacturing. It has reserved 1,00,000 sft rent-free space for startups to facilitate quick commercialisation of successful solutions. It has been contracted by the Government of India for manufacturing ventilators and other essential medical equipment such as masks, PPE, testing kits and etc.
Published - August 16, 2020 10:49 pm IST
