Site Visit at Natec Medical
23 Feb 2021
Reaffirming Government’s commitment to promote investment in the high-tech manufacturing.
As part of the ongoing consultative process in light of the forthcoming budget exercise, the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development has established a calendar of activities, to enable key private sector operators to engage with the Honourable Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development.
In this perspective, Dr. The Honourable Renganaden Padayachy, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, conducted a visit to Natec Medical Ltd and its partners namely Xtruline Ltd and Abiolabs Ltd, on Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 at the Maeva Tower, Ebene.
The Honourable Minister was accompanied by key officials of the Economic Development Board, the Mauritius Investment Corporation and Landscope Mauritius. The objective of the site visit was to take stock of progress and activities currently being undertaken by the company and its projected expansion plans at the Cote d’Or Data Technology Park.
It should be highlighted that Natec Medical Ltd is an integrated design, development and manufacturing company specialized in percutaneous interventional medical devices for the global market. The company is involved in the manufacturing of angioplasty balloon catheters for interventional cardiology, radiology, gastroenterology and urology. Furthermore, Natec Medical Ltd has over 20 years of experience as a medical device manufacturer in Mauritius.
Mr Vincent Lagarde, the President of Natec Medical Ltd accompanied by Mr. Stephane Lefevre, CEO of Natec Medical and its partners proceeded to the site visit at the premises of Natec Medical Ltd. During the visit, the detailed manufacturing process for catheters as well as the Research and Development department, quality control department and the machine and equipment department.
In his address to the press, the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr. Renganaden Padayachy. emphasized that the Government has introduced several incentives to boost local production and foster more investment in the health and pharmaceutical sector. He reaffirmed the Government’s determination to further consolidate and promote the sector and attract more players in the high-tech medical and manufacturing industry. The setting up of these types of industries will contribute towards growth and development in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector as well as promote inclusive development in the country. Moreover, he added that this sector is evolving as an important pillar of the Mauritian economy.
The Minister of Finance also commended Xtruline Ltd for establishing a dedicated facemask production unit with a monthly capacity of 400,000 masks. He expressed his satisfaction for the determination shown by local enterprises to produce locally manufactured disposable surgical facemask which bears testimony to the agility and resilience of local producers, thereby enhancing self-sufficiency and reducing dependency on imported items.
During the visit, the delegation had the opportunity to discover Xtruline Ltd, the first Mauritian extrusion company, whose main activity is to extrude tubes used as raw materials in the catheter manufacturing. Xtruline Ltd has also developed its facemask production line with a monthly production capacity of 400, 000 masks.
The Honorable Minister and the representatives also visited Abiolabs Ltd which is a medical laboratory specialized in diagnostic and predictive services. In order to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, Abiolabs Ltd uses its inhouse expertise combined with substantial investment equipments and has upgraded itself to provide the RT PCR tests (Covid-19 diagnostic) and Covid-19 variant sequencing. The laboratory has the capacity of performing 300 COVID-19 RT-PCR test per day.
