Neuberg Diagnostics, an alliance of diagnostic companies, has firmed up plans to expand in Africa, West Asia and across states within India.
The Chennai headquartered Group with combined revenues of Rs 450 crore will set up diagnostic facilities in Kenya, Tanzania this year and Nigeria and Ghana in the near future, said Anand K, Group, CEO.
Neuberg Diagnostics had acquired Global Clinical & Viral Lab, a centre of excellence in virology and the biggest HiV lab in Durban, South Africa three months ago. Its the fourth largest chain in the African nation and is focussed on TB and HiV. The future expansion will be funded from internal accruals, Anand said.
In West Asia, the company will have a diagnostic lab in Kuwait and open a facility in Abu Dhabi. In addition to traditional test and investigations, the Group intends to offer new generation diagnostics based on genomics, proteomics etc., Anand told
With three global reference labs in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Durban, Neuberg is also gearing up to focus on futuristic medicine involving genetics, and personalised medicine. “While the tests at present are ‘prohibitive’, we plan to collaborate, tech transfer, indigenise and bring down costs in the long run,” said Anand.
The Group is also making efforts to build databases, libraries for the Indian population, develop referance ranges for population given its genetic diversity and evolve assays specific to population and ethnic groups. It has tied up with the Indian Institute of Science and C-CAMP (Cellular and Molecular Platform), both in Bengaluru.
In Telangana, it has a lab in Mahapur, Hyderabad. Plans are on to have a chain of collection centres in districts. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, it will establish labs in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada in the next 6 months, he said.
The alliance consists of Anand Diagnostics, Bengaluru; Supratech Micropath, Ahmedabad; Ehrlich Laboratory, Chennai, Global Labs, South Africa and Minerva Diagnostics, Dubai. It carries out nearly 16 million tests per annum combined.