Microbiology, Immunology, Hematology and Pathology Devices in India

The demand for lab testing devices in India continues to grow as pathology labs are upgrading their facilities. This category of medical devices includes:

• Microbiology, hematology and In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD) devices such as blood glucose meters, hematology analyzers, blood gas analyzer, blood bank refrigerators and specimen receptacles
• Immunology, oncology and allergy devices such as linear accelerators and immunoassays analyzers
• Pathology devices such as tissue microarrays and microscopes
• Reagents and consumables
• Labware such as petri dishes, pipettes and burettes.

India has over 100,000 medical diagnostic facilites including 70,000 that offer pathology services. The rest largely provide radiology and imaging such as MRI, CT scan, X-ray and ultrasound services. The industry is fragmented with almost 90 percent being owned by single or dual location small businesses. QUest Diagnostics of the United States has many locations across the country and an Indian chain called Dr. Lal Pathlabs has 150 labs with access to 2,000 network providers. The company raised $44 million from Westbridge Capital and TA Associates in 2013.

Many labs are located surrounding major hospitals in urban areas. Revenues in this category have grown at double digit rates due to the increasing demand for healthcare, increases in price and dependence on tests by clinicians. There are top tier, large, automated labs which are certified by India’s National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), while at the same time, there are thousands of uncertified labs, some of which are looking to convert from manual processes to various degrees of automation.

While there are many domestic Indian manufacturers in this category, foreign companies including BioMerieux, Johnson & Johnson, Roche Diagnostics and the Tulip Group are the leaders in the Indian market. IVD sales in India were estimated at $530 million per year as of 2011 by McEvoy & Farmer.India is also a vibrant market for used diagnostic equipment from Western countries.