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| Diagnostic major Quiagen plans expansion in India |
| Joe C Mathew / New Delhi Nov 09, 2009, 01:08 IST |
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Quiagen, the German molecular diagnostic major, is planning to expand its Indian operations in a big way. The company is considering a manufacturing facility in the country by 2010 to cater to the growth opportunity in the cervical cancer detection segment.
In an interview with Business Standard on the sidelines of Indian Economic Summit here on Sunday, Thomas Schweins, the company’s vice-president for marketing and strategy, said it was open to acquisitions to ensure a space in the fast-growing Indian diagnostic market.
“Over 70,000 people die of cervical cancer in India each year. The ones who are diagnosed every year will come to about 150,000. We want to offer diagnostic solutions to the young women of the country to see that they are screened well in advance, to eliminate the disease,” he said.
Quiagen has an ongoing partnership programme with PATH, an international health NGO being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to undertake demonstrative screening in select Indian towns. Schweins said the partnership can be expanded to other public programmes, once the new cost-effective sceening method being tried by Quiagen is proved successful. “In the special cervical cancer screening solutions developed by us for PATH, there is no need for specialised lab technicians. The tests can be conducted even without electricity or pure water. This is tailormade to suit developing country situtations and we are expecting a huge business opportunity in this segment in the coming years.”
Quiagen’s plan for a manufacturing facility in India is also linked to the growing need for diagnostic services within the country. “Given the import duties, it is economical to manufacture the product within the country than import them. We are also planning to have an inhouse research and development facility here,” he added.
Quiagen has also recently tied up with Merc, the global drug maker, to increase access to HPV (cervical cancer) testing in some of the most resource-poor areas of the world.
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