Lupin forays into diagnostics, to open 100 labs pan India in next 3 years

Drug maker Lupin on Friday announced the launch of its diagnostics business in India as part of diversification.
The company launched operations with 11 labs including a 45,000 square feet national reference lab in Navi Mumbai and 200 collection centres in West and East India.

The drug maker said it plans to open over 100 labs across and 1000 collection centres across India in the next three years. About 90% of collection centres will be run by franchisees.

Lupin said it wants all its labs to be NABL accredited within 18 months of their launch.

Lupin didn't disclose the quantum of investment on its diagnostics diversification but said that the company has enough resources to scale up business.

The company said the expansion will be done through a combination of organic and inorganic.

"Diagnostics business is complementary, we will leverage the relations that we have built with healthcare practitioners over decades to build the vertical,," said Rajeev Sibal, president, India Region Formulations at Lupin.

Sibal said he wants Lupin Diagnostics to be a top-5 diagnostic chain in the next five years.

India’s $9 billion diagnostics services sector is highly fragmented with less than 20% of the industry represented by organised chains such as Dr Lal PathLabs, Metropolis, Thyrocare, Vijaya Diagnostics among others battling out for market shares. To be sure Lupin isn't the first pharmaceutical company to enter diagnostics, Mankind Pharma, another large drug maker, has been into diagnostics business with focus on small towns. According to B&K Securities the industry is estimated to grow at compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of little over 10% in next 10 years and is expected to assume a size of $24-25 billion.

Sibal says there is enough room for the new entrant who can assure quality and high service standards. “There are around 100,000 pathology labs in the country, only 2400 labs are accredited,” Sibal said.

Lupin has roped in diagnostic veteran Ravindra Kumar to head the diagnostics business, which is housed under Lupin’s wholly owned subsidiary Lupin Healthcare Ltd.

Kumar who worked in Apollo Diagnostics and Dr Lal Pathlabs, said the company is trying to differentiate with the competition on temperature control sample movement, introducing track and trace mechanism like food delivery platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato and care is taken to ensure the reports are insightful and interactive for doctors and patients.

The company said it would not just be offering routine diagnostic tests, but specialty ones such as a range of tests such as molecular diagnostics, cytogenetics, flow cytometry, microbiology, serology, histopathology, immunology, hematology, among others.