Made-in-Pakistan: Alsons Group at final hurdle of ‘cost-effective’ ventilators

KARACHI: Not many would have noticed Alsons Group’s stand at the Pakistan Auto Show 2023, even though it was located at the main entrance.

Visitors were keener on making pit-stops at the cars that were on display and took part in the ballots that had various prizes on offer.

However, biomedical engineering graduate Reeta Kumari, working as assistant manager at Alsons Group, was in high spirits as she gave an overview of the medical equipment, especially the ventilator that the company’s director claims “will be the first commercially-available Pakistani made ventilator”.

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The company is waiting for the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to start production.

The other side of the Alsons Group’s stand displayed parts of armament and weapons, which attracted visitors apparently more than the medical equipment– after all these armament and weapons parts are a major portion of the group’s exports of up to $6 million a year to countries including France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.

“These are mainly precision components and mechanical assemblies for armaments and weapon manufacturers,” Akbar Allana, Group Director Quality and Marketing, told Business Recorder after the event.

The group also makes parts and assemblies for Suzuki, Honda, Toyota and Yamaha.

“We started as a clock manufacturing company and then switched to defence and automotive. Over the last ten years, we’ve diversified into manufacturing for lighting, power and energy and now medical device industries,” Allana added.

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The medical device manufacturing is the group’s latest venture.

“But this is the most exciting sector for us.

“Firstly, it gives us the opportunity to launch our own line of products in what’s a nascent market. It also gives us the opportunity to showcase our skills as designers, developers and manufacturers. If we can pull this off and succeed, I think it can be a game changer – not just for us but for our country as well.

“Most of all, what excites me about this sector is the chance to build products that can actually save lives and potentially have great impact for the country and our industry.”

The conversation drifted to the ‘made-in-Pakistan’ life-support ventilators, which Allana said are much more cost-effective and a much-needed solution for Pakistan’s ailing healthcare sector.

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“Our price (of ventilators) is almost one third that of an equivalent imported ventilator. Imported ventilators start at around $30,000 while ours will be priced at around $10,000.

“It’s not just ventilators, our hospitals and healthcare centers are short of all types of devices, accessories and consumables. Patient circuits and masks, for example, are reused when they are meant to be single-use only. There’s a huge opportunity here.”

Looking for opportunities amid challenges

Just like the country’s economy, Pakistan’s auto industry goes through boom and bust cycles after every few years. As the auto sector struggled in 2012-13, Alsons Group started to diversify.

“While we diversified into several new sectors (lighting, power/energy, household appliances), we struggled to select and develop a product of our own. Covid-19 gave us the opportunity to develop not just a ventilator, but a whole range of medical ICU devices,” Allana said.

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The ventilator is in the final stages of approval at DRAP. It has gone through engineering validation at the Pakistan Engineering Council, software validation at FAST-NUCES, and over 500 hours of successful human trials at Jinnah Hospital in Lahore.

“The Principal Investigator sent a positive report to DRAP a few months ago, but the authority needed some further clarifications on certain matters. We are in the process of compiling it for them. Once we resend our amended report, we are hoping to get approvals within a few weeks.

“We are in the process of registering our syringe pump with the Pakistan Engineering Council so we can start engineering validation on that as well. We estimate a 2- to 3-year approval cycle for each new product we introduce, and hope to register 2 to 3 new products and variants a year into this cycle,” he added.

Slow and steady

The company currently has the capacity to build around 20 ventilators a month.

“But this can easily be scaled when the time is right,” he said. “We want to take it slow in the first year so we can ensure quality and reliability. Our target is to build and sell around 100 devices in the first year and develop our maintenance and service network around those sales. A higher number of sales may be difficult to manage in the first year for a new player like us.”

Previously, other organisations have tried to manufacture ventilators. There were two locally developed ventilators that got DRAP approval - NESCOM and PAEC. Initially, DRAP and PEC had taken out emergency standards for testing during COVID and these two ventilators got passed under emergency conditions.

As soon as they were passed, DRAP changed the terms of reference for testing/qualification of ICU ventilators and made them much harder.

“At this point, we were almost done with the trials as per emergency testing criteria and had to restart under new testing criteria. So, our ventilator went through two rounds of trials,” he said.

“Unfortunately, neither NESCOM nor PAEC are commercial organisations so after approvals their ventilators just disappeared and never got launched.”

Allana clarified that they are not assembling ventilators as around 75-80 % is locally manufactured.

The question is why the company is still pegging the price of its ventilators in dollars?

“The reason we price in dollars is because of the high cost of imported components and materials. Because of rapidly fluctuating dollar rates, it’s easier to lock our prices to the dollar. All our materials and components have to be of medical grade and standard, and hence, the high cost.”

The company has already exported medical CPAP/HFNO devices to a few countries like Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Bangladesh during Covid-19 pandemic.

“The device was developed under license from University College London Institute of Healthcare Engineering and was the first locally manufactured respiratory aid device to get approvals from DRAP,” Allana concluded.