The Hindu Business Line : Metropolis, Lister plan national network

WITH corporate hospitals becoming an increasingly familiar landmark in the urban landscape, corporate branding in the diagnostic services segment is catching on.

The Mumbai-based Metropolis, for instance, has embarked on a three-fold strategy to establish a national footprint.

Other players in the segment include national players, such as SRLRanbaxy, and regional players like Dr Lal's.

Pharma companies, including Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) and Nicholas Piramal, also have a finger in the path-lab pie, supporting such ventures directly or indirectly.

Aiming to have one Metropolis lab in every State in two years, Metropolis Health Services has partnered with its joint venture partner in Chennai, Lister Laboratories, to fuel growth across the country.

"We have taken our Chennai collaborators as our all-India partner," said Dr Sushil Shah, founder-chairman of Metropolis.

Having worn different hats in the past — as Executive Director, DRL-diagnostic division and Director on the board of Zydus Cadila, among others — Dr Shah founded The Metropolis Laboratory in 1981.

Metropolis forayed into Chennai when it bought 50 per cent equity into Lister Labs to form Lister Metropolis about two years back.

On similar lines, Metropolis entered Kerala by taking a majority (over 80 per cent) stake in the Thrissur-based Sudharma Laboratory.

Besides managing the laboratory at Chennai's Malar Hospital, Metropolis has diagnostic centres at Kochi and Jaipur and in the next four-odd months expects to set up labs at Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi.

The company also manages labs at the new Ramaiah Hospital in Bangalore and is mulling diagnostic centres at Nasik and Jammu and Kashmir.

While the centres at Mumbai and Chennai are referral centres or main diagnostic hubs, other labs would fall into the primary or secondary category, doing routine and high-end tests respectively.

Investments range between Rs 70 lakh-Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 10 crore for a diagnostic centre.

Dr Shah said: "Expansions done till date have been funded through resources generated internally or through bank borrowings. We are talking to local and international funding agencies and plans will be formalised in six months."

Metropolis has a referral centre in Dubai and second line growth is through international expansion. It is exploring proposals for Tanzania and Sri Lanka.

Clinical trial platform mooted

Metropolis plans to forge a tie-up with Chennai's Sri Ramachandra Medical College (SRMC) and Bangalore's Ramaiah Hospital to offer complete clinical trial solutions, Dr Shah said.

"We may set up a joint company or have a loose alliance towards this purpose and will be able to offer patients, lab services, hospital beds, disease profiles," he added, indicating that plans would be formalised in six months. "We will work with contract research organisations to bring clinical trials into the country."

India offers an outsourcing opportunity worth $2 billion in clinical trials, according to industry representatives.

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