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).
Though the Budget this year is expected to be exceptionally austere, the corporate honchos have dished out their wishlist
Fortis Healthcare Chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh on Wednesday said it planned to launch an IPO for its diagnostics business unit, Super Religare Laboratories (SRL), in 2011. SRL had acquired the diagnostics business of Piramal Healthcare for Rs 600 crore in the first quarter of this financial year.
Their offer values Fortis at over Rs 9,000 crore, or around Rs 172 per share.
Drug major Cipla on Tuesday said it has launched drone-powered deliveries of critical medicines - cardiac, respiratory and other essential chronic therapies - to hospitals and pharmacies across Himachal Pradesh in partnership with Skype Air Mobility, a Gurugram-based drone delivery company. Cipla is the first among large Indian pharmaceutical companies to adopt drone-based deliveries to facilitate expedited supply to stockists in remote areas, it claimed. The Mumbai-based firm said the use of drones will support the on-time delivery of its medicines to chemists and clinics in remote areas, and minimise risks of affecting cold chain products due to temperature excursions.
Piramal Healthcare and SRL have entered into an agreement for SRL to acquire Piramal Diagnostics Services Ltd, Piramal said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The bouquet of Covid-19 tests that most diagnostic labs are offering include antibody tests (blood tests), rapid antigen tests (point of care tests that detect the presence of an antigen from a nasal or throat swab in case of SARS-CoV-2), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
One challenge for many laboratories in ramping up is the shortage of trained manpower for collecting samples, report Sohini Das, Vinay Umarji and Virendra Singh Rawat.
commercial airlines and air navigation service providers have to carry out random drug tests on at least 10 per cent of their flight crew and air traffic controllers every year.
Analysts are expecting pharmaceutical companies to post sales growth of 10-11 per cent in the second quarter this financial year while the Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) margins are anticipated to improve by about 110 basis points. Ebitda improvement will be led by lower input costs because prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are 5-15 per cent lower year-on-year (Y-o-Y). Axis Capital said sales growth would be around 10 per cent, of which growth in the India market would be 11 per cent or so.
The testing rate is likely to slow down, report Pavan Lall and Sohini Das.
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.
Netmeds is looking at using new technologies such as deep learning and data analytics to improve forecasting in terms of the demand of the products for pharma companies, reports Peerzada Abrar.
Better margins, lower interest outgo could see the company turn profitable in FY15.
Delhi-headquartered Fortis Healthcare is open to acquisition of hospitals with over 250-300 bed sizes as part of its strategy to grow at a faster clip. It may also opt for a neutral brand name soon. Neutral brand is a new brand, which is not owned by any of the stakeholders.
The company said this was 'important' to reinforce the 'complete disassociation' from its erstwhile promoters -- Malvinder and Shivinder Singh.
Over-expansion, bad management, and multiple allegations irreparably taint Malvinder and Shivinder Singh
In 2014, Sun Pharma agreed to buy Ranbaxy -- which was then controlled by Daiichi.
Hospitals to recover from sluggish Q3; diagnostics' growth rate at pre-Covid levels.
Most feel as the movement of people normalises, the in-patient volumes in hospitals will grow and by the end of May, occupancy should be around 50 per cent, and 75 per cent over a period of time.
Analysts feel Fortis Healthcare share holders are at a disadvantage and deal valuations had been short of expectations
Sanjeev Vashishta, chief executive officer at SRL Diagnostics, talks to Deepak Patel about expansion plans and regulations for the sector.
While there is a shortage of testing kits, manpower and capacities, India does not have other scalable testing options.
Bhavdeep Singh, the CEO of Fortis Healthcare said that they haven't been able to focus on the business due to an internal issue, especially with regard to the promoters
'India is too large a place to have just 10 labs performing these Covid-19 tests.'
Singh, who was instrumental in building required capabilities in the organisation said his role at Fortis did not allow him to spend time with his family, as the reason behind his resignation.
Financials were the top gainers lead by private lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank
Urjit Patel as the new RBI governor whose focus is on taming inflation has lowered the probability of interest rate cut soon