The country's medical diagnostics major Dr Lal Path Labs (LPL) has planned to set up its new state of the art facility lab for all disciplines of laboratory medicine at Rohini in New Delhi. The company is investing approximately Rs 40 crore and the new lab will be beginning its operation early in the 2008.

Dr Arvind Lal, chairman and managing director, told Pharmabiz, "We are setting up biggest lab in the Asia, on the surface of nearly 85,000 sq ft. This new lab will have the state of the art facilities for all disciplines of laboratory medicine viz, anatomic, pathology or histopathology, biochemistry haematology clinical pathology, microbiology, electrophoresis, HPLC, tandem mass spectrometry, flowcytometry, molecular diagnostics including RT PCR for qualitative and quantitative tests, cytogenetics, atomic absorption spectrometry, FTIR and others. We are also setting up 50 new centres across the country".

The company is also planning to set up 50 new centres across the India. Initially five centres at five metros will be set up and another 45 centres will be established in other regions with a total investment of Rs 25 crore. These centres will start functioning within next three months.

The strength of the scientist at LPL in the Delhi region is 200 and out of these 50 are pathologists.

Recently, the company has set up state-of-the-art clinical trial laboratory at its headquarters in Gurgaon as part of its wider plan to cash in on the growing clinical trial market in the country. LPL is working with a number of Indian and foreign pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations (CROs) for the last few years. LPL has already finalised an elaborate blueprint for making it a key player in the clinical trial business in the country.

While talking about further expansion plan, Arvind Lal said, "We are in talks with some like minded companies. The next phase of our expansion will be to have 50 full-fledged laboratories and 1,000 sample collection centres across the country".