Introduction

Medical Textile is an interdisciplinary branch that links textile engineering and medical technology to healthcare applications. Textile materials and products should have a particular strength, flexibility, non-toxicity, and non-allergic, non-carcinogenicity to be accepted for healthcare applications. Depending on their application, it covers several parts of the healthcare sector ranging from a single thread suture to complex composite structures for bone replacement and from the simple cleaning wipe to advanced barrier fabrics used in operating rooms. As the healthcare industry is growing tremendously in India, the demand for Medical textiles is also rising.

Medical textiles are those technical textiles in day-to-day life for maintaining hygienic & health conditions as well as in assisting/performing medical sector.

List of products in all sectors

Statistics on medical textiles in India

  • The total market size of medical textiles was $600 million in 2014 and reached $780 million by 2017 growing at 8-9% CAGR.
  • In 2014, surgical dressings and surgical sutures alone accounted for more than 50 per cent at $380. Universal health coverage scheme, 100 per cent FDI under automatic route and support to PPP model to improve availability of health care services are among the initiatives which will have an impact on consumption.
  • The medical textile market in India was at around $600 million in 2014, of which surgical dressings and surgical sutures alone accounted for about more than 50 percent at $380. Universal health coverage scheme, 100 per cent FDI under automatic route and support to PPP model to improve availability of health care services are among the initiatives which will impact consumption (Medical textiles set to grow at 9% CAGR in India, ITJ, September, 2015).
  • The market for medical textiles, segment-wise is given in the following table.  (R. Alagirusamy and A. Das, 2010, Technical textile yarns-Industrial and medical applications, Woodhead publishing limited, UK).

Future scope

Opportunities lies in technical textile machine manufacturing, specialized raw material manufacturing, setting up laboratories to test these materials /products, manpower training, etc.

  • Many medical textile products are imported and not manufactured in India, so there is a huge potential for manufacturing them in India. Many medical textile products are classified as medical devices. No concrete data is available for medical textiles, but 80% of medical devices are imported.
  • Though India is the second most populous country, the penetration of medical textiles is very less in India due to factors such as less awareness among people, cost of products and non availability of many products to common people. But now the usage of medical\ technical textiles is increasing due to the new generation with a higher disposable income, more education, easy access to media/internet.
  • The shift in Indian culture to western influence and globalisation has created / helped in creating more awareness about usage of medical textiles in day-to-day life such as wipes, sanitary napkins, diapers to maintain cleanliness & hygiene environment.