India's diagnostics sector is accelerating capacity addition and geographic expansion, as large chains and regional players invest in new laboratories, integrated centres and dense sample collection networks to tap rising demand for preventive, advanced and precision testing.
An expert from the ICMR's National Institute of Virology addresses concerns about hantavirus cases detected on a cruise ship, stating there is no immediate public health threat to India and that the cases appear isolated.
Union Health Minister J P Nadda has launched the Unified Health Interface (UHI), an interoperable digital network under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). UHI aims to connect patients and healthcare providers across various digital platforms, addressing fragmentation in India's digital health ecosystem and improving access to verified services, especially in rural areas.
The government on Sunday gave a strong push to upgradation and expansion of healthcare infrastructure, medical education and pharma sector with the Union Budget 2026-27 announcing a slew of steps, including those aimed at making India a global hub for allied healthcare professionals and biopharma manufacturing.
Till date eight cases of the disease have been detected in India, out of which five have foreign travel history, the minister of health and family welfare said.
Brokerages have cut their estimates of listed diagnostics players for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) after mixed December quarter results and muted near-term outlook. Their volumes and realisations will be under pressure due to weakness in Covid-adjusted performance and higher competitive pressures, the brokerages believe. In a post-Q3 results note on Dr Lal Pathlabs, Bhavesh Gandhi of YES Securities pointed out that there has been a lack of volume revival in recent quarters, with an increasing likelihood that FY24 too would be a work-in-progress year for the company's initiatives to bear fruit.
The H3N2, which has been in wide circulation for the past two-three months, causes more hospitalisations than other subtypes, said ICMR scientists who keep a close watch on ailments caused by respiratory viruses through the Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories network.
When Prashanth Reddy's father was in an ICU he could not find a lab that would deliver a blood infection test report in 24 hours. That's where iGenetic Diagnostics, which uses molecular techniques next generation sequencing, came in.
India has reported 59 cases of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) and two deaths due to co-morbidities between January 6 and 29, according to Union Minister Prataprao Jadhav. The virus primarily affects young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals, leading to respiratory illnesses. The government has taken measures to monitor and control the spread of HMPV cases and create public awareness.
Rs 7,774 crore, has been provisioned for COVID-19 Emergency Response and the rest for medium-term support, ranging from one to four years to be provided under mission-mode approach.
Not far back, in 2010, SRL Diagnostics, promoted by former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, acquired the diagnostic services business of Piramal Healthcare for Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion).
The ICMR's network of laboratories will take care of diagnostics and there is enough capability to step up the supply of diagnostic kits if required, they said.
Metropolis Healthcare (MHL) has decided to acquire a 100 per cent stake in Gurgaon-based Core Diagnostics for Rs 247 crore. This is about 2.2x FY24 (financial year 2023-24) enterprise value (EV)/sales and estimated 14x FY26 EV/Ebitda for the deal.
India has come a long way from conducting the first COVID-19 test in January in a laboratory in Pune to crossing the milestone of conducting four crore such tests.
An acute drug shortage in the US and stable pricing along with product launches are likely to boost revenues of India's pharmaceutical companies during the first quarter of this financial year, analysts said. Most brokerages estimate a top line growth of around 14-15 per cent, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) growth of 24-30 per cent for Q1 of FY24. Hospitals are, however, likely to report lower occupancy rates, and diagnostics companies may witness an impact from delayed monsoon.
The ICMR said people having symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat and runny nose and residing in hotspots or cluster areas and in evacuee centres will now be tested for coronavirus infection.
According to various global media reports, China is creating Covid-like pathogens in Pakistan that have the potential of causing virus contamination on a scale far higher than Covid.
The IPO rush will continue in September with two more companies Vijaya Diagnostic Centre and Ami Organics launching their initial share-sales on Wednesday to raise a total of Rs 2,465 crore. This comes after eight companies including Devyani International, Nuvoco Vistas Corporation and CarTrade Tech floated their initial share-sales last month to mobilise Rs 18,243 crore. So far in the current fiscal, a total of 20 companies have mopped up more than Rs 45,000 crore through IPOs. This is much higher than Rs 31,277 crore raised by 30 firms in the entire 2020-21.
Six Covid-19 cases were reported on Wednesday after screening 3,476 passengers of 11 flights that arrived in India from "at-risk" countries and the samples have been sent for genomic sequencing, the Health Ministry said amid concerns over the 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus.
A 22-year-old man, who recently returned to Kerala from the UAE, allegedly died due to monkeypox on Saturday.
India's COVID-19 recoveries have sprinted past 27 lakh, taking the recovery rate to 76.61 per cent, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.79 per cent, the health ministry said on Sunday.
It also assured that the amount of medical insurance coverage under the Ayushman Bharat scheme would be doubled from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
1mg has made buying medicines easy and it aims to do more in online health care.
Taking lessons from that, I would think seamless digital payments is something you have to clearly have a roadmap for, the FM said.
The health ID will contain information about medical data, prescriptions and diagnostic reports and summaries of previous discharge from hospitals for ailments. The mission is expected to bring efficiency and transparency in healthcare services in the country.
Dr Manjiri Bakre's OncoStem is revolutionising breast cancer treatment. And has raised $6 million to do more!
The doubling time of coronavirus cases has slowed down to 13.9 days in the last three days.
Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal claimed that India has been doing better than many other countries on the outcome ratio, which is the number of recoveries from coronavirus infection versus the number of deaths.
Sanjeev Vashishta, chief executive officer at SRL Diagnostics, talks to Deepak Patel about expansion plans and regulations for the sector.
Clauses on land return, action against officials diluted
If we are to realise the full potential of biologics' ability to improve people's health, it is essential to encourage public policy and support R&D.
The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again
'Let me talk about young Indian startups with their hearts in the right place and how they are proving that innovations that represent 'affordable excellence' -- breaking the myth that 'affordability' and 'excellence' cannot go together -- is indeed possible!' says Dr R A Mashelkar, the eminent scientist, in this fascinating feature.
