In order to tap the Rs.600 crore Hematology segment of over Rs.2500 crore diagnostics lab market in India, Alere Medical Pvt Ltd, a US based company into near-patient diagnostics for cardiology, infectious disease and toxicology, has made a foray into Hematology segment by launching the latest range of Alere’s Hematology 5 part and 3 part differential analysers named Alere h 560 and Alere h 380 which will bring down the per test cost for diagnosing the Complete Blood Count (CBC).

Alere’s latest Hematology range will equip doctors for making timely decisions by accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases and various multi drug resistant diseases. With a turnaround time of just 60 seconds per test as and a recurring cost of Rs.40,000 to 50,000 per annum, it would prove to be a complete solution for labs in tier two, tier three cities and in labs at public and private hospitals across India.

Says the company's official spokesperson Priyank Dubey, "The per test cost will be as less as Rs.20 as compared to other lab systems which costs Rs.50 because the latest range uses only three reagents which can be stored for longer period of time at room temperature without requiring any infrastructure for refrigeration."

Equipped to store one lakh samples and an effective disposal mechanism by virtue of using non – hazardous non cyanide reagents, the system is user friendly because of the inbuilt bidirectional interfacing which offers it compatibility with Lab Information Systems (LIS) and Hospital Information Systems (HIS).

Talking about the relevance of the system, city based hematologists say that "It will help the doctor to make an informed decision by giving accurate synopsis of bacterial infection and viral infection when WBC count goes up. It is also an ideal tool for diagnosing antibiotic resistance, iron deficiency anaemias, acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and other oncological diseases."

Amongst the key attributes of the FDA approved product - the advanced hematology 5 part differential analyser is uniquely equipped with complete 5 part differential counts with 24 parameters, 2 Scattergrams and 2 histograms. It uses advanced technology to separate out abnormal cells populations.