DiaSys recently unveiled its new facility in Navi Mumbai ‘DiaSys House.’ Bertrand de Castelnau, Dr Guenther Gorka and Peter Zoller, MDs and CEOs, DiaSys in Germany, in an interaction with Sanjiv Das, elaborate more about the new facility and how it will help the healthcare sector
Tell us more about DiaSys House?
DiaSys in Germany develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic systems of superior quality to laboratories, hospitals, and physicians in more than 100 countries. Since its foundation in 1991, we have introduced more than 90 liquid-stable reagents for routine and special diagnostics completed by calibrators and controls. DiaSys’ top priority is to provide our customers with the best quality products and services. At DiaSys, we believe in the importance of a quality diagnostics which improves the efficacy of curing and reduce the therapy costs
As for DiaSys India, created 30 months ago, a clear vision has been developed
- To be a respectable member of the DiaSys family with the same quality standards and requirements
- To be a preferred partner to the testing sites all over India
- To become an innovative point of care testing specialist, building a pillar to the worldwide DiaSys Strategy, and exporting products internationally from DiaSys India
As for India, initially, 30 months ago when we acquired the business, we have had an office in Kurla, apart from our R&D in Goregaon, Mumbai and a production facility in Pawne, Navi Mumbai. Now, we have opened this new facility in Mahape, Navi Mumbai. The facility will bring production, administration, R&D, manufacturing and delivery of products under one roof.
Why did you choose Navi Mumbai as the preferred destination?
DiaSys India is part of the DiaSys group since September 2014 when DiaSys acquired the diagnostic business from Piramal Healthcare. Since then a lot was taken care to roll out the ambitious plans and the positive contribution of DiaSys to Indian healthcare system. India is one of our major focus areas as the key country where DiaSys can contribute to the healthcare system. DiaSys group has also daughter companies in other countries like China, Brazil, Indonesia, besides Germany France and Japan.
Navi Mumbai offers all the facilities and a very conducive environment to run the operations. We want to make India our major R&D centre for the DiaSys Group Strategy, but also our key manufacturing centre for India but also for export. A special focus will be made on the environment where there will be an emphasis on reusing water, energy etc.
What will be manufactured in the new facility? Will the products also cater to other parts of the world?
In DiaSys India New House, we will manufacture chemistry kits (liquid stable reagents) for the Indian diagnostics centres. We will also manufacture laboratory instruments to equip the same diagnostics centres, complementing our range of fully auto analysers coming from Germany, of which 200 units are active all over India.
We will also manufacture kits for rapids testing, from our newly created R&D Indian centre.
Our products will be delivered to hospitals, diagnostic centres within the country. We already have a tie-up with All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Thyrocare, Appolo etc.
Eventually, we will export the products manufactured in DiaSys House to other parts of the world. The DiaSys Group has distribution facilities in over 100 countries, and also DiaSys India has sister companies in countries like China, Japan, Indonesia, France, Germany, Brazil and the US.
What are your future investment plans?
We have already invested over Euro 5 million in India. There are plans both in R&D and in additional production. In addition, we will further invest in sales and services, apart from export activities.
How are you going to raise the amount for the said investment?
For the time being, the entire investment has been funded through long-term and short- term cash support from the German mother company.
Do you plan to go for any tie-ups?
India is a strategic market on one side and our PoCT strategic branch is also critical. We will consider partnership to reinforce our success in both directions.
What will be the employee strength at DiaSys House?
Our employee strength based in DiaSys New House is around 60, and overall in India we have 128, including 60 sales personnel and 30 engineers based in our regional centres in Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi.
Are there any plans to ramp up the employee strength?
We started two years ago on our journey with 96 employees and currently we have 128 employees. There are plans to hire more.
The National Health Policy was recently unveiled by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. What is your say on the same?
We welcome the initiative by MoHF&W on National Health Policy. If diagnostic is well taken care of, then less cost is incurred for treatment, as an early accurate and quality diagnosis will have a positive effect on curing the disease.
The Make in India initiative by the government has motivated us in our investment in India. Still we at DiaSys decided to go beyond to conduct research and development in India, and also export out of India. Our motto is to do R&D to manufacture and to export from our newly launched DiaSys India New House.