Ranbaxy, Specialty Lab Unit To Be Opened Today

Ranbaxy Labs Ltd announced a 50:50 joint venture with Speciality Laboratories of US. The joint venture has set up a clinical reference laboratory in Mumbai.

To be called Speciality Ranbaxy Ltd, the venture will have an equity base of Rs 12.5 crore. The laboratory will be inaugurated today by Y K Alagh, minister for science and technology.

Speciality Laboratories Inc is a privately owned firm and is the single largest source of specialised clinical lab testing in the US, catering to over 22 countries. Ranbaxy Labs also has a research and development tie up with US giant Eli Lily in India and had signed an MoU with the US based Cigna for health insurance.

James B Peter, Speciality Ranbaxy chairman, said Rs 25 crore has already been invested in the Mumbai laboratory and part of the money will be debt funds. The joint venture company will also set up two satellite centres in Bangalore and New Delhi later during the year, said Bipin Alreja, chief executive officer of Speciality Ranbaxy Ltd. More centres could be set up if required, he added.

Peter said he had visited several research institutes in the country to forge a joint effort in training personnel for specialised clinical testing.

The facility will be operated by 70 employees and the number is likely to go up to 150.

Speciality Ranbaxy plans to set up more labs across the country to create a network.

The lab will provide testing facilities for oncology, infectious diseases like tuberculosis, hepatitis and HIV. Further, disciplines in laboratory medicine like auto immune diseases, therapeutic drug monitoring and cytogenetics will also be introduced.

"Where diagnosis of tuberculosis ordinarily takes around five to six weeks, we will do the diagnosis in days," said Peter. The service charges will be comparable to Indian labs where the facilities already exist in the country.