Bhat Bio-Tech India (P) Ltd. has ventured into the diabetic diagnostic market with  Glucometer. The product marketed under the brand name Bhat Glucoscan Glucometer comes in with a 5 years warranty. It has capacity of over 100 test memory and the battery will last for more than 1000 tests. The test strips come with 24 months shelf life. The cost per test will be less than Rs.22.

The focus of diagnostics is now moving towards Point-Of-Care (PoC) and portable testing devices. Going by the increasing number of diabetes in the country estimated at 44 million, the need for a robust Glucometer for testing blood sugar level prefer to carry out the test at home rather than flock to a laboratory. With the World Health Organisation recommending the testing of blood sugar several times a day, accessing  labs is not practical and economical. This is where Bhat Glucoscan will drive the economies-of-scale in diabetes testing, Dr Shama Bhat, chairman and managing director, Bhat Bio-Tech India.

Bhat Glucoscan is robust, accurate, easy to use and very economical compared to the other similar products available in the market. There is a need to serve the people with low cost Glucometer for improving the life style by managing diabetes, he added.

The  product launched by Karnataka’s minister for Health and Family Welfare minister B. Sriramalu coincided with a seminar on “Latest trends in Diabetes Testing and Management.” The meeting was chaired by eminent thoracic surgeon Dr Shashidhar Buggi, director of SDS Tuberculosis Research Centre and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Disease.

According to Dr Mohan Rao, a consultant at the Sagar Hospital, Asians are more prone to Diabetes than the those from the western world. Latest tests and the need to increase the frequency to monitor the blood glucose levels before, after and in between meals, would help to control diabetes which is growing life style disorder. Low sugar levels  lead to many other complications particularly cardiovascular complications. The  gold standard test of glycosylated haemoglobin alone is not sufficient as it will give the average level of high and low blood sugar. The levels of blood sugar before and after the meals are also important in the management of diabetes.

According to a private study around of the 50 million diabetics in India, only 2.5 million people are using glucometres and blood sugar monitors. Current diabetic multinational diagnostic kit majors include  Johnson & Johnson, Bio-Rad, Roche and Abbott. The Indian company , Biocon, has a tie-up with Bayer and having  blood glucose meters branded as "Breeze2" and Piramal has  Glucard.