| Maria Helling, CEO, (left) and Anna Riby, Project Manager, Swecare Foundation on their recent visit to Mumbai |
Some of Sweden’s leading healthcare and medical technology companies were in the country recently, to scout for new business opportunities and partners in India’s healthcare system.
Bactiguard, Elekta, GrippingHeart, and HemoCue were part of a healthcare delegation organised by the Business Sweden and Swecare Foundation, in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.
The delegation is a follow up on the contacts and dialogues initiated on a previous visit last December, where a delegation from Sweden visited the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
India is one of the focus countries of Swecare Foundation, a semi-governmental non-profit platform which acts as a facilitator for Sweden-based academia, public and private sector to enhance export and internationalisation of Swedish healthcare and life science across the world.
The dialogue between the two countries on healthcare collaborations was formalised in early 2009, when Sweden and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The focus of the MoU is healthcare and public health. It includes three broad tracks, cooperation between public institutions, academia and private sector. The delegation trip focused on public health since there is a wish from the both governments that the Swedish private sector also develops its contacts with the Indian public sector where a lot of developments are taking place at the moment.
Since the primary focus of the MoU is public healthcare, members of the recent delegation visited public hospitals as well as interacted with state health authorities in both Maharashtra and Karnataka. The delegation visited Bangalore on October 7-8 and Mumbai on the following two days. The visit coincided with the inauguration of the new offices of the Swedish Consulate General in Mumbai.
Speaking exclusively to Express Healthcare, Maria Helling, CEO, Swecare Foundation indicated that representatives of the companies in this delegation got positive feedback and will be developing on these leads in the coming months.
On the government to government dialogue, she said that both state governments have shown keen interest in working with Swedish companies and institutions in order to develop the healthcare situation in their states. Designated areas of priority include lifestyle related diseases, cancer care, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The state governments have also indicated an interest to work closer to Sweden in the areas of infection control, HIV, elderly care as well as mother and child health.
EH News Bureau