Of the 20 lakh people who suffer brain strokes in India, only 1,500 undergo treatment, says N.G. Badari Narayan founder of S3V

HYDERABAD, Dec 13 (The CONNECT) - S3V Vascular Technologies, a company incubated at the Indian School of Business in 2011 by Alumni of the PGPMAX founding batch, has come out with India’s first and revolutionary medical devices useful in reversing paralysis.

They include Neuro Clot Retriever, Neuro Aspiration Catheter, and Neuro Microcatheter. These devices will be formally launched in Hyderabad by Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, at a function in the city on 15th December.

Prof Balram Bhargava, Chief of Cardiothoracic Sciences, AIIMS, New Delhi & former Director General of ICMR and Dr Mathew Cherian, Past president of the Indian society of vascular and interventional radiology will also participate in the event. 

Addressing a press conference N.G. Badari Narayan founder and Head of Medical Devices at S3V and formerly MD of Relisys, which was known for introducing Kalam-Raju stent, said about 20 lakh people suffer brain strokes in India each year. But only 1500 patients undergo procedures. With the launch of these futuristic products, we hope that the number of procedures may go up to at least 2.5 lakh per annum in the next decade. With these devices, if the procedures are done in time within the golden hour, there is a high chance for blood flow to be restored and paralysis reversed, he added.  

Stroke also causes maximum disability leading to partial or complete paralysis in a patient next only to Road Traffic Accidents in India. Of all the strokes, 87% of strokes are due to a thrombus. Stroke not only affects the elderly but is increasingly being seen in individuals in the 35-50 age group due to lifestyle modifications. 

Lack of Patient awareness and shortage of trained manpower, high cost of hardware and absence of government support are among the hindrances to treatment with this procedure. The Current cost of the Hardware is nearlyt INR 5 lakhs and the total procedure cost is between INR 8 to 12 Lakhs. Currently, the procedure covers less than 1% of the Stroke patient as more than 99% of Indians can’t afford this procedure.

The gold standard of treatment for ischemic brain stroke (stroke due to a blockage of brain vessels due to clot) is Mechanical Thrombectomy which involves an interventional procedure done in a cath lab to remove the clot stuck in the vessel of the brain.  

The company has received test licenses and soon will commence commercial production upon receiving the nod for manufacturing also, he added.  

 S3V is engaged in the development, manufacturing and marketing of a variety of Medical Devices, more particularly, Cardiac Devices, Neuro Devices, Nephro Devices, Onco Devices and Peripheral Devices. Now it is foraying into high precision Neuro Devices and electronics-based catheters. It focuses on the manufacturing of NextGen medical devices indigenously. The neuro devices we are talking about are manufactured only by a handful of two or three countries all over the world. “These are the state-of-the-art, highly advanced stents brought out only by us informed,” said M.V. Gowthama, Director of the company who is the former CMD of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

S3V has its manufacturing facility at Mysore. The new manufacturing facility will come in Mysore District. The Government of Karnataka has allotted 8.81 acres of land. The new plant will be designed and built as per USFDA norms. The new facility will house cutting-edge technologies for integrated manufacturing. The company is likely to invest INR 200 Crore in the new plant. 

S3V is striving to bring high-end stroke treatment technology to the common man. The challenge India faces starts from a lack of awareness, affordable hardware and availability of trained manpower in the form of intervention physicians. S3V is trying to address the entire ecosystem of this challenge.