Read the Conversation
EF: Could you please elaborate on Terumo's involvement in India and the strategic role this country has for your company?
PD: Terumo has been in India for almost four decades and began making in India here in 1987. As a company, we wanted to be involved at every stage of the value stream and took a very holistic approach to India. We operate one of the world’s largest blood bag production facilities which exports to over 50 countries. In addition to manufacturing, we also operate a global centre for innovation and development in India and have established large-footprint medical education programs.
Highly committed to improving medical skills, around six years ago, we invested in a physical, brick-and-mortar training facility in India. This facility in Gurugram, India, called Terumo India Skills Lab is equipped with rare tools like beating heart simulators, as well as several best simulator systems worldwide for cardiac intervention, peripheral intervention, aortic repair and cardiac surgery. The facility has supported thousands of clinicians and paramedical practitioners, and we are expanding its current capacity in many folds. In order to make the training experience in it the world’s best, we recently decided to equip Terumo India Skills Lab with a cath lab, which may make it the first simulation training centre with a cath lab in India.
India is expanding in interventional cardiology and many doctors have launched their own catheterization labs due to the country's strong entrepreneurial drive. Terumo observed that many of these cath lab directors may benefit from learning how to operationally strengthen their facilities to serve more patients better. As a result, alongside offering our technical skills enhancement courses in Terumo India Skills Lab, we partnered with Siemens Healthineers and the Indian School of Business (ISB), one of India's most prestigious business institutions, to support a "Cath Lab Directors" program which is focused mainly on skilling them towards the efficient and patient-oriented running of their cath labs.
Apart from these Make in India, Innovate in India and Skill India initiatives, we are also progressively expanding our use of India's bandwidth for our global community. Our Global Shared Service Centre, which provides finance, IT and supply chain services to Terumo operations in America, Australia, Asia Pacific, and Europe, now employs around 70 people and continues to grow.
Our Indian business is among the fastest growing in the world, and we have great confidence in India's potential and capacity to meet the needs of the world.
EF: As technology is heading toward precision and personalized medicine. Could you tell us more about Terumo's vision for the future of medicine?
PD: One of the three components of our global strategy 2026 is ‘Deviceceutical’. We believe in an increased relationship between devices and pharmaceuticals.
Terumo’s Pharmaceutical Solutions Division primarily provides highly sophisticated packaging and delivery solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, including but not limited to pre-fillable syringes. We work closely with the top pharmaceutical companies worldwide, including top Indian biologics and vaccine players, enabling them to receive devices that significantly enhance the value of their products. These devices are often custom-designed and manufactured.
In a still relatively new practice, Terumo is providing CDMO services. Till now, these services were only available in Japan. However, we are working with several key countries to increase our CDMO footprint, and India is undoubtedly one of these countries given the large number of pharmaceutical clients, partners, and customers.
Also, Terumo’s Blood and Cell Technologies business has steadily transformed into a cellular technology solution company. We aim to collaborate not only with blood centres but also with the pharmaceutical industry and R&D in cell technology and plasma.
India had traditionally been a market for whole blood replacements, and we've made a significant impact in promoting apheresis and component therapy. As we advance, we work closely with life sciences clients, offering our technology to add real value.
We also partner with major pharmaceutical companies in India to expand intervention cardiology-related education programs, helping to educate cardiologists on treatment options and interventional pathways. By leveraging our pharma partnering and our training facility, we aim to improve healthcare through collaboration.
In such a specialized industry, meaningful impact is only possible when we work together, so we prioritize all these partnerships.
EF: Instead of “Pharmacy of the world, which new nickname would you give India based on how its MedTech industry is evolving?
PD: I am not set on a particular name, but India has enormous potential for innovation and manufacturing. The manufacturing of medical technology is a highly complex global ecosystem. I hope that India will become a major global supplier and developer of medical devices, connecting the country to the rest of the world.
The medical device industry already has a well-defined global quality management system.
By aligning with such international standards as ISO, EU MDR, and US FDA, we can maintain the attractiveness of manufacturing for the world in India, and make Indian quality and competitiveness count globally. Like the success of Indian pharmaceuticals, driven by the numerous US FDA, etc. approved facilities, this approach will not only boost medical device use in India but also integrate us into the global market through a global regulatory and quality ecosystem.
EF: How can we further boost India's investment appeal for medical devices?
PD: Investments in medical devices vary with value added by different regions. Japan excels in elemental technology, making it ideal for investing in fundamental coatings, element development and incremental innovation. The U.S. leads in bio-design through university-driven innovation ecosystems.
India's strengths are in software for medical devices, electromechanical engineering, cost-leveraged manufacturing, incremental innovation and using its large patient volumes for AI solutions. India's parallel industries in aerospace R&D and electronics offer rapid scale-up opportunities. Therefore, investment in India should focus on low-cost manufacturing, software development, electromechanical assembly, digital solutions, and AI-based algorithms, leveraging India's vast patient base for quick market entry.
Indian MedTech has proven its rapid scale-up capacity in injection, infusion and blood centre systems where it leveraged the country’s moulding and extrusion capacity built by the automobile industry. A similar example would be the drug-eluting stent industry's recent rapid growth in India, which was enabled by the already available laser-cutting technology from the diamond industry. Rather than starting from scratch, you can scale up your manufacturing process quickly if you can leverage that adjacency and take advantage of the talent and supplier ecosystem that is already available.
EF: What accomplishments will you be most proud of after 12 years at Terumo, and what goals do you still have?
PD: Two key things make me very proud after by twelve years in Terumo.
Firstly, the respect that the Terumo brand has in India today is enormous. Our customers trust us and have rewarded us with very high business growth and leading market shares. Our associates trust us and have repeatedly rewarded us with excellent Great Place To Work™ scores. Our global management trusts us, and we are attracting continued scale-up investment. Our social value creation programs through our CSR initiatives have been severally recognised. We are one of the highest-velocity MedTech multinationals in India today.
Secondly, we have curated very capable leadership pipelines in India in a short period of time. Today several of our overseas talent came out of our India growth momentum, as well as several of our India leaders driving global initiatives of high importance. The Terumo India philosophy of ‘Powered By People’ has yielded results.
These are very different from where we were a decade or so ago.
As leaders, our task is to build sustainable successful organisations that thrive way beyond our tenure. Knowing that Terumo India thrives, creates a positive impact on numerous patients, and will forever do so, is incredibly fulfilling.
