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India Business Excellence Fund-III, a fund managed and advised by Motilal Oswal Private Equity have agreed to invest upto INR 2,400 million in Goa based research driven diagnostic company, Molbio Diagnostics Private Limited.
MOPE Investment Advisors Private Limited (MOPE) is a subsidiary of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited (MOFSL), a diversified financial services group with businesses in securities, asset management, private equity and investment banking
Molbio (along with its subsidiary Bigtec labs) has developed and commercialized Truenat, the world’s first commercial Point-of-Care (PoC) molecular diagnostics platform using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology. Truenat can diagnose 22 infectious diseases (like TB, H1N1, Dengue, HIV, Hepatitis etc.) and has a pipeline of additional 43 diseases (such as Coronavirus, MERS, etc.).
This indigenous technology was approved by ICMR in 2018, after 3 years of validation study across various sites in India. Internationally, the World Health Organization (WHO), after conducting a multi-country study, has released a rapid communication in January 2020 endorsing Truenat as initial diagnostic test of MTB and MTB-RIF in view of its high accuracy.
Established in 2000, Molbio and Bigtec have spent 18 years on R&D, collaborated with reputed institutions in India and across the globe e.g. CSIR, ICMR, BIRAC, Grand Challenges Canada, BMGF, FIND to develop and deploy molecular diagnostics in resource limited settings. The Truenat assay is rapid (results within 60 minutes) and affordable. The equipment is battery operated and can be used in peripheral centers without extensive infrastructure.
Molbio is working closely with central and state governments across India for supporting the national mission of TB eradication by 2025 and efficient diagnosis of H1N1, Dengue, Hepatitis B & C and other infectious diseases. As per the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination of India, Government plans to establish over 8,000 molecular laboratories and diagnose over 1.5 crore patients’ annually using molecular tests by 2025. A phase wise roll out with 1,512 Truenat machines has already been initiated.
Vishal Tulsyan, Managing Director and CEO of MOPE commented, “We are very proud of partnering with an innovation led company that is likely to change diagnostic paradigm and have real impact on saving millions of life. Molbio has successfully innovated world’s first point of care molecular diagnostic platform and is a true testament to ‘Make in India’ for the world. Molbio’s business model of close ended diagnostic platform with multiple test assays have strong potential across the globe both in public and private sector. Through this partnership, we intend to help Molbio scale up their operations and achieve its vision of becoming a leading and well-respected medical equipment company from India.”
Sriram Natarajan, Director and CEO of Molbio said, “Today, India has the highest TB burden across the globe and nearly 1,400 people die of TB every day. TruenatTM will help in decentralizing and democratizing access to high quality diagnostics to millions of patients suffering from TB and other infectious diseases even at peripheral and remote settings. Partnering with MOPE will accelerate Molbio’s growth plans and help the company in scaling its business. The funds would be utilized for fulfilling large committed orders, expansion of manufacturing facility and for other working capital and general corporate purposes.”
Chandrasekhar Nair, Co-founder Bigtec, Director and CTO of Molbio said, “Truenat is patented across 100+ countries and has been a result of persistent effort of the dedicated Bigtec team with support from different Indian and global institutions. Truenat enables the transition from presumptive to efficient, real time and precise diagnosis of multiple diseases at reasonable price. Partnership with MOPE will enable us to increase the test menu, build scale and reach to primary healthcare centers and smaller diagnostics labs, which can now deliver high end molecular diagnostic test.”
At present, Truenat devices are installed in over 500+ private labs and 350+ primary health centers in India and across the world in 27 countries. WHO endorsement will further enable the product to be commercialized across 150 + countries.
