Waters India will invest a total of Rs 4 crore for expansion of office infrastructure and setting up of small labs at New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The development comes in the wake of the company's new initiatives with a range of innovative products that will have an impact on the pharma, biotech, environmental sciences, food safety and water quality analysis sector.

The new products will provide customers a distinct business advantage and we intend to provide maximum support. Therefore expansions in our branch offices at the metros is inevitable, K V Venugopalan, president, Waters India told Pharmabiz.

The company has already invested Rs 2 crore for expansion in infrastructure and manpower at its headquarters in Bangalore. Now the need to augment services in branch offices is planned going by the demand for the analytical instruments in laboratories across India. A huge growth is seen in not only pharma-biotech labs and contract research organizations but also public sector and government laboratories, he said.

In 2008, Waters Corporation will observe its golden jubilee celebrations and for Waters India, it's a completion of its two decades of its operations. The pharma-biotech industry in the country is expected to grow at a phenomenal rate and we are committed to increase our growth plans here, stated the Waters India chief.

In India, the fastest growing products are Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) where as, Waters hold a leadership status and has no competitors.

In 2007, the fastest growing product is Acquity UPLC System. Based on novel, sub two-micron patented particle technology, it takes full advantage of the separation speed and efficiency. The product significantly speeds the analysis of compounds in thousands of routine samples and detects compounds often missed in complex samples using conventional high performance liquid chromatography methods. It is already helping scientists fill the pipeline early with promising drug candidates and increasing R&D productivity at pharmaceutical and industrial organizations worldwide. The instrument is also used to confirm toxin levels like perchlorate, a known thyroid inhibitor in drinking water, contaminants and banned substances like Sudan dyes, veterinary drugs and pesticide residues in the food supply as well as to confirm levels of routine compounds such as caffeine in soft drinks.

With Acquity which was launched two years ago Waters India has managed to register 100 per cent growth from this product alone. The company which clocked a turnover of $52 million expects a 30 per cent growth during the close of the financial year in December 2007, stated the Waters India chief.

The market for HPLC and mass spectrometry is around Rs 1,000 crore registering 18-20 percent growth.