President A P J Abdul Kalam asked the Indian companies on Friday to tap the vast potential for healthcare products in the international market by maintaining competitive pricing and high quality.

"By expanding R&D strengths in metallurgy, drug delivery and evaluation and creating linkages with educational institutions and national laboratories, we can market the products at half the rate of the international competitors," Kalam said in Hyderabad.

He was speaking after inaugurating Asia's first catheter manufacturing and research and development facility at Mangalapally village, about 40 kms from Hyderabad.

The facility, developed by the city-based Relisys Medical Devices Ltd, will help bring down the cost of catheters and stents, which are currently imported at high cost.

The state-of-the-art facility, spread over seven acres, will initially have manufacturing capacity of 2 lakh stents and 1.20 lakh diagnostic catheters per year.

India should explore the huge untapped market potential in healthcare products through unique strategies and innovative methods of making the state-of-the-art products available at affordable costs for different segments of society, he said.

Kalam, who was instrumental in developing India's first indigenous cardiac stent in association with well-known cardiologist B Soma Raju in 1998, called for continuous research focusing on bringing down the cost of healthcare products.