Portable diagnostics company Molbio Diagnostics has expanded its operations into the imaging space by acquiring 70 per cent in Prognosys Medical Systems, maker of the Prorad digital x-ray units, for an undisclosed sum.

Molbio is the inventor of Truenat (a first-of-its-kind point of care, multi-disease Real-Time PCR platform), but the latest acquisition has a two-fold purpose, said Sriram Natarajan, Founder and Chief Executive of Molbio Diagnostics. Armed with Truenat and the portable digital x-rays, healthcare workers will be able to map asymptomatic cases of TB as well, Natarajan told businessline, a strategy that feeds into the country’s overall aim of eliminating TB by 2025. This also cuts down the time to diagnose a person with TB to a few hours (from a few days), helping start treatment as quickly as possible.

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The acquisition is also a step towards getting their plug-and-play format of e-clinics in place, he said, adding that they have already supplied such prototypes to the World Health Organization for Bangladesh and E.Timor. Molbio’s e-clinic plan is to equip containers with Truenat (that diagnoses over 40 diseases) and the digital x-ray from Prognosys, besides other screening products for the eyes, ears, thermal-imaging equipment used in screening for cancer, etc., and have them mounted on trucks that can go to remote locations.

Molbio is talking to three other companies to equip its e-clinic, he said, of the clinics that would be staffed with about four people.

Goa-headquartered Molbio expects to showcase its demo e-clinics to State governments and international multilateral agencies from April. The company saw its revenues dip from ₹1,200-odd crore to about ₹800 crore (due to a drop in Covid-linked cases and testing), in the year ended March 2022. This year, he expects, will end on similar lines.

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Prorad range

Prognosys builds radiology and fluoroscopy solutions under the brand name Prorad at its Bangalore facility that complies with national and international regulatory requirements, Molbio said. Its Prorad portable and ultra-portable digital x-ray units can deliver high-quality chest images combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven algorithms for automated interpreting and reporting at the point of care, the company said. Molbio Diagnostics is India’s first med-tech ‘unicorn’, the company said., and its Truenat is a point-of-care molecular diagnostic platform endorsed by the WHO and approved by ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) for TB detection and Covid-19 testing, it added.

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