Government healthcare programmes not just in India but globally will propel the growth of user-friendly, high quality, affordable point of care (POC) diagnostic devices. This is driven by the awareness on preventive healthcare which controls medical expenses, said Dr John Hurrell, non-executive chairman, PTS Diagnostics India.
 
There are a number of government programmes being initiated to identify diseases and disorders early. The government needs to be supported with a slew of POC diagnostic devices which are portable, reliable for rapid, highly sensitive diagnostics, convenient to operate with instant detection, besides being reasonably priced.
 
“We see immense potential for blood test products such as ours: CardioChek and A1C devices in India. These products are sold in 136 countries with distributors in 80 countries. Now India as an opportunity because like any other country, it is struggling with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases as a consequence of life style. Going by the market size for lifestyle diseases we see it is underserved. PTS set up a subsidiary which will be led by Dr. Chandrashekar SP and will increase its headcount from 5 to 30 by the year-end which includes a technical support team,” Dr Hurrell told Pharmabiz.
 
The awareness on preventive medicine and its impact to bring down medical expenses is an imminent trend in India. In India, POC devices need to marketed in a cost-effective manner in the wake of high import duty and increase in dollar rate. Companies will need to be creative to market products in India, noted Dr. Hurrell who is also the president, Asia-Pacific, PTS Diagnostic USA.
 
The company’s strategy for India is to focus on southern states with two of its core products: CardioChek and A1C devices. In order accelerate and broaden its business, it would also look at setting up secondary level manufacturing facility here in the long term, he said.
 
PTS presence spans across US, UK EU, Asia Pacific, Middle East and BRICS region for government programmes and in the private healthcare space. While CardioChek drives much of the company’s revenue, A1C has gained considerable traction in government programmes. The company also looks at promising acquisitions to take the inorganic growth route. Its two manufacturing plants are at Indianapolis and Sunnyvale, California. Much of its research innovation happens in Indianapolis.
 
Globally point of care market has huge spread spanning from pregnancy test to diabetes, lipids and infectious diseases. PTS is ranked second after Alere Inc. Other companies are Abbott Laboratories, Becton, Dickinson & Company, F. Hoffmann La Roche Ltd. and Bio-Rad Laboratories.