The Hindu Business Line : Dr Lal PathLabs scouts for partner to fund expansion

This comes even as the over 50-year-old diagnostic labs chain sets about establishing what is touted to be among Asia's biggest pathlabs, on the outer fringes of New Delhi.

"We are scouting for a partner and the exercise should be wrapped up shortly," said Dr Arvind Lal, Managing Director of the company. Ernst and Young have been consultants to the diagnostics company for the last five years.

The Rs 40-crore pathlab chain expects to double the number of collection centres that it has across the country, to touch 500 in five years, in addition to establishing about 50 labs. At present, the network comprises 10 labs and 250 collection centres.

Elaborating on the mega laboratory project to be established at Rohini, on the outskirts of Delhi, he said that the Rs 22-crore project would come up by 2006. Finance for the project is being raised from banks, he said.

The pathlab chain caters to almost 3,000 patients per day and offers over 1,500 different investigations and tests. Dr Lal was in the city recently for the launch of neonatal screening or screening of infants using Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Touted to be a first of sorts in South Asia, he said that the advanced tests screen children for genetic disorders called Inborn Errors of Metabolism (IEM).

The IEM testing profile will enable the diagnosis of 60 different metabolic disorders, 40 of these will be tested using a blood specimen collected on an IEM screening card or a special filter paper, he said. The test is done on neonates in the age group of 0-28 days, but it can be done on children and adults too.

IEM are basically genetic defects in enzymes/proteins used to metabolise proteins, fats and carbohydrates that result in deficiency or toxic accumulation of these metabolites in the system. If untreated, these can cause irreversible damage, leading to serious mental retardation, autism, learning disabilities and even death, he pointed out. The test assumes significance since about four crore people in the country suffer from mental retardation.

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