Mankind Pharma to foray into diagnostics

New Delhi: New Delhi-based leading pharmaceutical company Mankind Pharma is set to foray into the diagnostics space under its new venture - Pathkind Labs. The company has earmarked an investment of over Rs 305 crore over the next four years and will start operation from August.

Sanjeev Vashishta, who was earlier heading SRL Diagnostics, is leading the diagnostic venture for Mankind. "There is a huge demand for quality diagnostics, especially in rural areas. Diagnostics can be used as preventive healthcare measure to reduce overall health expenditure. We want to leverage on this opportunity by providing quality services at affordable prices," Vashishta, chief executive of Pathkind Labs, told TOI.

Though the company will initially start its operations from the northern region and plans to tap Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and parts of Bihar in next one year, it is eyeing to go pan India over next five years with almost 1300 collection centres and close to 130 labs. It expects to be break-even in next five years.

The company will operate on a three-tier model of hub, sub-hub and multiple spokes, Vashishta said. It will have a reference lab in Gurgaon, large network labs in metros or bigger cities, and smaller rapid response labs in tier-II cities. Apart from this, it will also have multiple collection centres in small towns and villages, which will be connected through the network of labs.

In the first phase, it plans to start the reference lab in Gurgaon along with 11 large network labs, 20 smaller labs and 125 collection centres. Of the 11 large network labs, 8 will be opened in UP including in Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut and Gorakhpur. Besides, Uttarakhand will have one and Bihar will have two large labs.