West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc recently announced its partnership with TECHNIC – a technology innovation foundation of IIT Palakkad which focusses on assisting innovation and incubation for budding entrepreneurs, to build a Medtech Research Centre of Excellence, West Pharma notified via a statement.
It also said that the aim of building a distinctive Medtech Research Centre of Excellence is to enable access to healthcare and medical technology by developing an ecosystem of academia, hospitals and the industry to promote local entrepreneurship. To achieve this objective, West’s medical expertise with IIT’s unique incubation model will be combined to advance research and development in medical technology.
West will work with IIT Palakkad’s TECHNIC in the area of medical technology. The engagement will be carried out by West’s Digital Technology Center (DTC) in Bengaluru which will be directly working with TECHNIC’s team throughout this partnership. To support the startups in the programme, West will be providing a non-commercial version of its ‘medical device connectivity platform’ to support the development of connected med-tech equipment. Additionally, West will mentor and may fund startups through the MedTech Research Center of Excellence, the statement added.
It further said that IIT Palakkad is well incorporated in the industrial ecosystem of Coimbatore and Palakkad, making it an ideal institute for partnership. Furthermore, it offers a vast network of successful entrepreneurs from the region including PAN IIT alumni, cutting-edge research facilities and technical expertise of the faculty.
Speaking on the partnership, Anoop Madhusudanan, Vice President, Digital Marketing and Digital Platforms, West, said in the statement, “The intersection of medicine and technology is yet to be explored to its depth and has transformative abilities in providing access to healthcare and ease of patient care. At West, we believe in continuously pushing the boundaries of innovation to provide the best healthcare and medicinal support to the patient. And with this partnership, we envision moving closer to our goal.”
Adding to it, PB Sunil Kumar, Director, IIT Palakkad, and Chairman, TECHNIC, also said, “The partnership with the West will enable us to make advancements in medical technology. We expect researchers and innovators to take advantage of TECHNIC’s unique incubation model and West’s expertise in medical devices and health technology to accelerate the development of technologies that will ultimately benefit the society. We are grateful to West for coming forward to set up this centre at TECHNIC, and are looking forward to work with them in making the Medtech Research Centre of Excellence successful in the country.”