The Rs 400-crore Morepen Laboratories, has entered into a strategic joint venture with the US-based Ameritek Inc to manufacture the latter's entire range of products for India and all Saarc countries except Pakistan.
Morepen will manufacture the range of rapid diagnostic test kits for clinical diagnosis of various diseases under the brand name of dBEST-Morepen in these markets. In the initial few months, the company will import and test market these products.
With this tie-up, Morepen has forayed the domestic $30 million diagnostic market growing at 30 per cent per annum. Ameritek will support manufacturing of the rapid test kits in the country by Morepen, by providing complete technical support directly and on-line.
Ameritek is the world's largest manufacturer of rapid diagnostic arrays, offering more than 150 diagnostic tests in the field of fertility and pregnancy and infectious diseases like AIDS, hepatitis, dengue, etc.
The dBEST-Morepen products would be targeted at two different segments - clinical laboratory tests focused on private laboratories, nursing homes and hospitals and home tests sold through retail counters and doctors.
The products manufactured by Ameritek Inc of the US, will be marketed - also manufactured at a later date - in the country by Morepen Medipath, a division of Morepen Labs, which may be hived off into a joint venture with the US firm at a later date.
Dr KC Yee, president and chief executive of Ameritek said his company is considering picking up between 25-50 per cent stake in the proposed company. "We will consider a financial collaboration, depending on the success of the products in the market. At present, we are only marketing Ameritek products and our partner has offered technical support in manufacturing," Morepen chairman and managing director, Sushil Suri said.
He added the company had already invested around Rs 25 crore in the project and another Rs 5 crore will be brought in by the foreign partner as and when a financial collaboration is agreed upon.
According to Yee, "there is immense potential in the Indian markets and Morepen has a proven international brand equity and is one of the most competent pharmaceutical companies in Asia." Sushil Suri said, "Morepen is committed to building up the diagnostics segment of the Indian market bringing the Indian health care systems at par with global standards."
Morepen has been looking to aggressively move up the value chain to enhance its presence in the domestic sector by bringing the best of international technology to the country through various joint ventures in the field of diagnostics and new launches in branded formulations, innovative products and NDDS in focused segments.
The company will soon be launching a wide range of contemporary life-style oriented consumer care products.
