Rank 3

Realizing opportunities

Labindia has continued to maintain its strong hold in the real time PCR and PCR segment to record Rs 274.5 crore in revenues in 2007-08.

Labindia, which is engaged in the marketing and manufacturing of various analytical instruments, accessories and other products that are used by the chemical, pharmaceutical, petrochemicals and biotechnology industries as well as for basic research in academic and government laboratories, is the leading Indian life sciences supplier company with revenues of Rs 274.5 crore in 2007-08. The company registered 26.7 percent growth in its life sciences business riding the wave of growing demand for PCR and Real Time PCRs besides its strategic initiative for reagents sales.

The biggest product launch for Labindia last year was SOLiD from Applied Biosystems. This is a next generation sequencing technology that can sequence complete genomes in a matter of weeks rather than years as in past. "With the funding from the government being less, as it is the last year of the Tenth Five Year Plan, the DNA sequencers business grew in lower double digit, while Mass Spectrometry (MS) business grew in single digit. However, the Real Time PCR and PCR business grew by 31 percent over last year," said VS Upadhye, managing director, Labindia Life Sciences.

Labindia's Technical Center in Gurgaon is a well-equipped laboratory with the latest Applied Biosystems genomic and proteomic instruments, UV spectrophotometers, centrifuges, hybridization ovens and cold-storage equipment. The laboratory recently received accreditation from The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) for carrying out tests in various areas of molecular biology. The company also introduced the Basmati Verifier Kit, claimed to be the world's first product for establishing the authenticity of Basmati rice samples.

The kit is manufactured and marketed by Labindia and was developed by a group of scientists from the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) in Hyderabad for use in conjunction with Applied Biosystems' Genetic Analyzer platforms. In February this year, Labindia and Applied Biosystems have donated DNA sequencing equipment (The 3730xl Genetic Analyzer) to the Genome Foundation to help the organization achieve its goal of reducing suffering from genetic diseases. In the future, the company wants to enter into applied research for the new products in the food testing and analysis area and is also working in the area of molecular diagnostics and forensic science while exploring partnerships in medical and biomedical fields.