Q1. Congratulations for an excellent 2019, please let us know your key achievements in 2019?
2019 has been an eventful year for us and has taken us a step closer to our vision of a Healthier and Happier World. With the support and trust of our customers, we completed forty years of our journey towards becoming a total solutions provider for clinical diagnosis. We now look forward to 2020 with great hope after what has been a very positive year for the Transasia-Erba group in India as well as globally. To begin with, we launched our own range of fully automated hematology analyzers. Developed at our state-of-the art facility in Europe, the Erba hematology range have already set a new benchmark in the industry, with more than 2000 units installed in just six months! We also launched Lisa XL, the first ‘Made in India’, six plate ELISA processor, paving the way to introduce our latest range of immunology markers from our US subsidiary, Calbiotech, USA. We gained a further foothold in the urinalysis segment with the introduction of the new Laura and Laura XL.

Manufacturing in India has been our forte with a zero compromise on quality. Our manufacturing plant at Mumbai (Seepz) was awarded the ZED Diamond rating by the Quality Council of India for process and quality excellence making us the first IVD Company to receive this honour.

We have also entered the high technology Molecular Diagnostics segment with the pre-launch of MX 16, an automated nucleic acid extractor. This will open up new avenues for easy-to-use and affordable testing of TB and other infectious diseases, a growing concern for India and the emerging countries.

NEXUS, our new modular automation system for immunology, clinical chemistry and hematology was unveiled, globally.

We expanded our global reach through our new subsidiaries in Brazil, Austria, Vietnam and UAE to provide better care to our customers in these countries.

Q2. Key challenges to overcome in 2020.

Needless to say, the Government’s role is imperative in developing a conducive policy and regulatory environment to give a fillip to the Make in India initiative. Inspite of Government of India’s declaration to give preference to Make in India, hardly anything is done about it.

The government should re-look at high GST being levied on medical diagnostic instruments (18%) and reagents (12%) to ensure that the ultimate objective of providing affordable healthcare services to the vast population is achieved. This is something that needs immediate attention.

Q3. Way Forward for 2020.

We have an exciting year ahead and it’s a very important year for making sure we maintain our leadership position as India’s Largest IVD Company. We are planning aggressive strategies to push our growth agenda. We have identified three pillars of growth – first would be to strengthen and grow our existing customer relationships; second is to scale up our production base and third is to strengthen our product portfolio with new product launches to make Transasia a ‘Total Solutions Company’.

While the Indian diagnostic industry is expected to steadily grow at a CAGR of 13-14%, availability, accessibility and quality of health services still pose a big challenge and the diagnostic industry is no exception. With the government announcing that the country will have 40,000 Ayushman Bharat and Wellness Centres for primary healthcare by 2020, there seems to be a ray of hope in filling this gap. The role of local diagnostic manufacturers like Transasia is critical here in providing solutions that are affordable and backed by efficient after-sales services.

Manufacturing in India has helped us provide products that are customized to fulfill India’s needs of affordability and reach, especially in tier II – IV towns. Transasia already has four manufacturing units in India at Sikkim, Mumbai, Baddi and Daman and provides employment to local youth who otherwise would need to move out of the state for such quality opportunities. We also have two manufacturing facilities outside India, one in Brno, Europe and the other in San Diego, USA. We have a host of products in the pipeline and will soon roll-out new products in molecular testing. Our plan is expand our avenues for testing of infectious diseases, a growing concern for India and the emerging countries.

We are also doubling our R&D spend to achieve this objective. This will be a key element of our strategy for sustained double digit growth year-on-year.

It’s interesting to note that with the Government becoming aware of great need for prevention of disease and hence focusing on taking primary healthcare to the grassroot level, the tier II-IV cities and towns are also setting up basic diagnostic facilities. Transasia with its wide range of analyzers and a wide service network will continue to play an important role in equipping these centres, right from on-boarding to training.

Our future plans call for improving our processes, organization and infrastructure to be more competitive and be first for our customers. Our reach has been our biggest strength; we have the largest team of sales and service personnel in the Indian IVD Industry. This has given us the competitive edge helping us equip the remotest locations. We will continue to further harness our capabilities to partner with laboratories. Availability of trained experts is the biggest challenge faced by tier II, III and IV cities.

In the coming few years, we aim to become a total solutions provider, only the fourth globally. In this context, Transasia is looking at foraying into new overseas markets such as Brazil and Russia through Greenfield manufacturing units to roll out affordable solutions to those markets. Emerging countries struggle to address the challenges of quality and affordable diagnostic solutions and we aim to cater to these markets through our global outreach.

The year 2020 will also open the gates for exports for Transasia due to our expanded sales and service network in over 100 countries.

Q4. Message for Healthcare Industry.
An informed public and increased demand for rapid disease identification is helping the healthcare industry flourish in recent years. Rising incomes, greater health awareness, lifestyle diseases and increasing access to insurance is driving the growth of this sector.

With a shift towards offering value-based services, the needle points towards quality, accessibility and affordability. India ranks 145^th among 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare, thus indicating that there is an ample opportunity for development of the healthcare industry. The government’s boost to Make in India, will continue to play a key role in ensuring the availability of affordable healthcare products. However, the Government should re-look at high GST being levied on certain essential products such as diagnostic instruments (18%) and reagents (12%) to ensure that the ultimate objective of providing affordable healthcare services to the vast population is achieved. This is something that needs immediate attention.

With the introduction of various government schemes such as Ayushman Bharat, the healthcare delivery system in India is undergoing a paradigm shift. Moreover, the government’s focus on infrastructural development in rural areas will boost the healthcare delivery chain.

Public Private Partnership models have arisen from the need to augment the availability of healthcare services, enhance accessibility of intended beneficiaries and enable various models for enriching the quality of healthcare.