In a major effort to offer the Indian healthcare market high quality and affordable advanced medical equipment, GE Healthcare has expanded its manufacturing operations to produce Hi-Speed Dual slice Computed Tomography (CT) system in Bangalore. This CT is one of the fastest selling equipment globally and the indigenous version will be priced at Rs 90 lakh (US$ 2 lakh). The current annual production capacity is 40 CTs which would be doubled by 2012.

It is the first company in the country to commence production of CTs in India. In order to market the same, GE Healthcare will collaborate with pharma majors, which already have the sales expertise in critical care drugs. This partnership initiative would be through within a month. GE would provide extensive training for the pharma sales team to market medical equipment.

The company has invested around US$ 1 million for the production centre that will eventually manufacture MRIs among others. India has a huge market opportunity for affordable products.