SRL Ranbaxy lines up UK, West Asia expansion

SRL Ranbaxy Ltd, south east Asia's largest pathology laboratory, is expanding its operation to United Kingdom and west Asian countries by end of this financial year.

Company chairman Harpal Singh said SRL was in dialogue with private hospital systems in these countries to source samples and test them in India.

SRL, certified by College of American Pathologists (CAP), expect to offer tests and diagnostics 25 per cent cheaper than their national counterpart without compromising on the quality, Singh informed.

"It will be high volume business. One of the hospital systems in UK, for instance, generates 80 million pound worth of tests annually. So the opportunity is huge," Singh said adding that SRL has set up state-of-the-art IT solutions which enable it to send report to anywhere in the world.

He expressed hope that SRL would start US operation by next two years time.

SRL has recorded turnover of Rs 45 crore in 2002-3. This is expected to go up to Rs 250 crore within next three years. This fiscal, the turnover should touch Rs 70 crore, Singh informed.

Back home, SRL has set up six labs in India. The company plans to open 30 more labs across the country. The cost of each facility would vary between Rs 6 lakh to Rs 2 crore.

The company was also positioning itself as the reference laboratory for contract research organisations (CROs). It is also working with number of transnational pharma companies for carrying out clinical trials for drug development.

"This is a big opportunity for companies like us. Once the new IPR regime comes into effect on 2005, India will witness a huge influx of such cases. SRL being the premiere lab of the country, stands to gain from the development," Vidur Kaushik, chief executive officer (CEO) of SRL Ranbaxy said.

Kaushik and Singh were in Kolkata to inagurate company's sixth lab in the country. Apart from them, the company has huge number of collection centres all across the country, including distant places like Leh and Imphal.