HORIBA Medical, a leading Japanese player in haematology, brought together premier Indian diagnostic players in a customer leadership connect to discuss investment plans and business avenues in India in New Delhi recently
The Japanese company, which designs, develops and distributes worldwide, in vitro diagnostic systems mainly destined for biological analysis in medical laboratories in the meet shared their plans and prospects related to medical business in India.
Speaking to Express Healthcare, Juichi Saito, Executive Vice Chairman and Group COO, HORIBA said, “Just bringing in a highly automated technology will not suffice, we should see whether it fits the medical needs here. A technology used in Japan or Europe might not be useful in India. HORIBA Medical would like to concentrate on the Indian demography, the diseases they are affected with. We are looking into developing indigenous medical devices and solutions, which are more applicable for Indian patients.”
Adding to it, Saito said, “India is a big market for us, but more than that we see the country as a rich resource of human talent. We could see a lot of young, educated, talented and skilled people here. HORIBA Group has been and in future would like to utilise the manpower by hiring them.”
Sharing his views, Dr Rajeev Gautam, President, HORIBA India, said, “We are a major haematology player and would like to expand our IVD range and give solutions to array of labs – be it private, public or hospitals. HORIBA has the state-of-the-art technology but we would like to alter it as per the needs of our country. For example, we have a technology for automation, which is used in Europe and Japan, but when we bring it to India, we would need to alter it to suit the requirements here. Our centre of excellence and R&D will remain Japan and France, but when we bring in our products here, we would customise it to the Indian conditions.”
HORIBA India entered the Indian healthcare market a decade ago with just haematology products and is now gradually growing its business in clinical chemistry and coagulation markets. HORIBA’s world-class technology products are manufactured under stringent internationally approved standards of GMP and are well-appreciated in several western and European countries.
党In Indian IVD space, haematology is 15 per cent, if we get into biochemistry, immunology and coagulation part then, our presence will be 60 to 70 per cent. In future, we would like to touch immunology as we don’t have the products from our own R&D but we will be partnering with some other player,・said Gautam.
Speaking about HORIBA Connect, Gautam said, “The main aim of HORIBA Connect is to interact with stakeholders so they know more about us and vice-versa. Major takeaways for the stakeholders from us are that we have the products made for the US, Japan and European market. Today, time has come to modify the products, which are need-based, for the Indian market. This is the strategy we are looking forward to.”
Appreciating HORIBA’s medical technology high-end instruments, Dr Arvind Lal, Founder and Managing Director, Dr Lal Path Labs said, “HORIBA is one of the most renowned Japanese company in the diagnostic segment. They contribute a lot of reagents and equipment. We are 100 per cent dependent on them. Under the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) in the Health and Wellness Centres (HWC) scheme, the diagnostic segment will play a crucial role. If HORIBA can contribute to this scheme, it will be good, as they have a range of high-class diagnostics equipment and they can have a presence in 1,50,000 HWCs. In secondary and quaternary equipment in the hospitals, they will be a great asset. HORIBA should also start thinking of manufacturing their basic instruments and reagents in India, as the rupee is going down and there is nearly 28 per cent custom duty in reagents, etc. Putting these factors together, they can play a vital role in Indian healthcare industry.”
HORIBA is coming up with its state-of-the-art facility to manufacture reagents in Nagpur and Maharashtra poised to be the largest haematology reagent manufacturing facility in India.
prathiba.raju@expressindia.com
Very true.