Roadmap Ahead in 2018 and Beyond
As we enter into the new year 2018, I extend my warm wishes to everyone associated with the industry. The current IVD market in India is pegged between `5000 crore and `6000 crore. The IVD industry may be very small compared to the total healthcare industry; however, as much as 70 percent of the treatment decisions are based on lab reports. Some of the factors leading to the growth of the industry are increasing population, greater consumer awareness, easy availability of services across cities and towns along with greater coverage by insurance companies. The industry is having a CAGR growth of 15 percent. India still has a huge burden of communicable diseases like malaria, dengue, typhoid etc. apart from the increasing burden of various metabolic, cardiovascular, and other chronic diseases.
The IVD industry is majorly a B2B business, where the products are used by laboratories, hospitals, nursing homes, and the physician’s table. It also caters right up to the user level, as in case of home-based testing of glucose and pregnancy tests. There is a definite consolidation happening at various consumer levels in the IVD industry. On one hand the centralized laboratories are expanding their collection networks and on the other hand the newer affordable and state-of-the-art technology is equipping the consumers and smaller laboratories to independently perform various tests which earlier they could not do of their own.
The research and development department of J. Mitra & Co. Pvt. Ltd. was recognized by DSIR (Department of Scientific & Industrial Research) in 1987. When we initially started manufacturing IVD tests, the immunology segment in the rapid test format was limited only to pregnancy tests. We were the first company in India to introduce and start manufacturing of rapid pregnancy test cards and later the other infectious disease tests for HIV, HBV, and HCV. In recent times there has been a paradigm shift in manufacturing technologies in the IVD industry. Only a fewer players have been able to adopt large-scale and high-tech automation in manufacturing of IVD tests. J. Mitra could envision the requirement of large-scale automation in India, not only to improve the quality of kits but also meet the bulk requirement of the customers. Our manufacturing facilities are ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13845:2016, and GMP certified.
In order to cater to the unmet need of various IVD test parameters in Tier II, Tier III, and rural areas where the labs are largely dependent on centralized labs for outsourcing their tests, J. Mitra recently developed an instrument called i-Quant. The instrument is based on fluorescence immunoassay technology platform. A variety of test parameters can be performed on this instrument which otherwise would require owning of multiple machines to perform these tests. The current test range includes HbA1c, Vitamin D, hormones, and infectious disease tests like dengue antigen. In future, a number of other test parameters can also be adopted onto this technology platform of the instrument. The miniaturized instrument is a perfect blend of a state-of-the-art technology, ease of use, affordability, low maintenance, and low settings requirements. J. Mitra has a dedicated, large, and highly effective sales team to take on the challenge of giving services to the customers who are situated even in far flung areas.
Rightly sensing the thrust of government on Make in India policy and the requirement of Indian markets, J. Mitra has allied with various national and international research organizations to offer best products to its consumers and maintain a leading market position in its offered range of products. In our view a right blend of products, pro-industry policy initiatives, supportive ecosystem, leverage on latent talent pool, and prudent investment strategies will position India on the map of the global IVD manufacturing hub.
