Hyderabad: GeneStore France, a French MNC founded and led by Indian entrepreneur Anubhav Anusha, which offers genetic testing with a range of molecular diagnostics, is looking to bring diagnostic kits (beyond Covid-19) for HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, which not only affect India but other developing nations.
The company aims to have a 100 test-kit portfolio in the coming months. It is also lining up mRNA-based vaccines through research and development to treat infectious diseases and genetic disorders.
Since its inception, GeneStore has screened individuals across 10 countries and now owns and operates clinical testing laboratories and manufacturing facilities across Europe (Gemenos, France), South Asia (Delhi-NCR), the Middle East (Dubai, UAE) and Latin America (Montevideo, Uruguay). The company plans to enter into Argentina and Brazil with labs and facilities besides West and South Africa.
The company launched Covid-19 RT-PCR test kit at a price of Rs 199 approved by both the French Ministry of Health and ICMR. Prior to the launch of the test kit, the pricing within the diagnostics industry globally was controlled primarily by large companies based out of North America and Europe.
Furthermore, during the initial days of the outbreak, RT-PCR test kits in India were retailed at a price point of Rs 500 to Rs 1,000, which GeneStore made affordable.
Anubhav Anusha, founder & global CEO, GeneStore, told Telangana Today, “Acquisition of a manufacturing facility in France in 2019 has helped us get into the infectious disease diagnostics where we did reverse integration into our supply chain, by getting into production of RT-PCR testing kits with stringent focus on infectious diseases. By the end of 2019, we revamped up the French unit. Parallelly at the same time, I came to India to set up another manufacturing and R&D facility in Gurugram to make these test kits.”
“Post Covid outbreak, we had our operations and supply chain to make the test kits for Covid. We started formulating kits both in India and France. We brought major price rationalisation not only in India and across Europe. Post our launch of test kits in July 2020, we captured about 40-45 per cent of the private sector market in India within 30-45 days. We were keen to bring in Covid-free ecosystem in areas such as aviation. We partnered with SpiceJet to create testing services labs in the last quarter of 2020, backed by ICMR and other government agencies,” he informed.
From 2 million units per month in July 2020, the capacity has now been expanded to 5 million units in India. Through the French unit, the company caters to Europe, Africa and South America.
“The company is currently setting up a new BSL-3 research facility in Gurugram with an animal handling room for vaccine research, enzyme production & purification infrastructure, to enhance RT-PCR capacity addition to 10 million units per month. In two phases (April 2021 and February 2022), we expect to invest 10 million euros (over Rs 80 crore),” he added.
The company, which has seen revenues of Rs 100 crore in the last one year, anticipates 3x revenues in the next fiscal.
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