SCTIMST-MPI  Joint Venture to Produce Animal Tissue for Medical Devices

THIRUVANANTHAPIURAM:
The first collection of  animal tissue for medical use from the ‘GMP Tissue Harvesting facility for Medical Devices’ established at Meat Products of India (MPI) Ltd, Edayar Koothattukulam, started on June 19.

Staff of MPI were trained by Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) for the collection of animal tissue. MPI Ltd  will supply  animal tissue  from this facility to SCTIMST as well as medical device industry for manufacturing animal tissue based medical devices such as cardiac patches, wound care patches , tissue heart valves.

The animal tissue is collected as per an international standard (ISO 22442 Part2) which deals with ‘Medical Devices utilizing animal tissue and their derivatives’. This ensures  checking the source of animal, its health status as well as the microbial status of animal tissue to be used in the manufacture of medical devices.

All these processes are well documented for aiding future technical auditing. Thus  safe use of   animal tissue  for manufacturing medical devices is ensured. SCTIMST had developed the know-how for processing animal tissue for medical use such as cardiac patches, wound care products, dura patch, bioprosthetic heart valve etc complying international standards.

Although India is a major exporter of meat, till date there was no established source for biomedical quality animal tissue in the country. Through this venture, MPI will be supported by SCTIMST to attain this unique status, thereby aiding in the development of affordable medical devices in our country.

Indian medical device/equipment market is estimated to be of $4 billion of which 70% is imported. The above endeavour is another attempt by SCTIMST for development of indigenous medical devices thereby  reducing import burden.