Diagnostic products maker to invest Rs 150 crore in the facility that will cater to domestic and export markets

Telangana Today I 12 Mar, 2021: Transasia Bio-Medicals, Rs. 1,300 crore in-vitro diagnostics company, is in talks with the Telangana government to set up a unit at Medical Devices Park in Sultanpur. The Mumbai-based company expects a capex of about Rs 150 crore into this unit. It is pertinent to note that 40 companies have already signed up to set up their facilities in the park. In total, the park has obtained a commitment of over Rs 1,200 crore with a potential to generate 6,500 jobs.

Transasia currently has four manufacturing units in India and one each in Europe and US. The company has a dedicated exports-oriented unit at an Exports Zone in Mumbai catering to global markets. The company has made a cumulative investment of Rs 70 crore in the existing units and the investment in Telangana will be its largest ever. Suresh Vazirani, Chairman and Managing Director, Transasia Bio-Medicals, said in an exclusive interview, "We are applying for the current production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. We are looking at setting up a unit at Medical Devices Park in Sultanpur in Telangana and are in talks with the State government. We are looking at an investment of Rs 150 crore and by end of this year, we expect substantial progress in this direction."

He added, "We plan to make high technology and advanced analysers in the Telangana unit to cater to biochemistry, immunology, hematology, molecular tests, besides COVID, HIV. Dengue and TB tests for both domestic and export markets."

Transasia portfolio

The company today has 400 products under its portfolio, in five broad product categories such as biochemistry. hematology, urine testing, diabetes testing and COVID testing. The company makes medical technology systems and equipment which are used in medical testing. For COVID, the company offers polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, antibody test, antibody rapid test and other tests. Transasia also caters to HIV and hepatitis testing and plans to soon come out with a new TB test.

When asked about the future focus, Vazirani said, "We want to focus on disease prevention. Treatment is an expensive thing to do because of the cost and technology involved in it. Prevention is better and much cheaper than cure. In India, we need a disease prevention programme so that diseases can be controlled early and reversed. For instance, cardiac and diabetes prevention are essential. Almost 70 per cent of people in India have not gone for a blood test, so we do not know how many million people already have diabetes or going to get diabetes, or hypertension, cardiac disorder or hepatitis."

PLI scheme

"The PLI scheme of the Government of India will help make the country a manufacturing hub. While in principle it is good, it needs to be further expanded many times more. In medical technology space, research and development are important. Thus, the focus of the government should not be only on manufacturing, there should be due emphasis on technology as well. I have suggested to the government, there should be a development linked incentive (DLI) on the lines of PLI," he said.

"Under DLI, the government can identify the products and areas, and ask the companies to submit the proposals for new technology and products they would develop in a certain time frame and provide the financial support for them," Vazirani added.