Initiative will help support hospitals and universities further COVID-19 research

 Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced the contribution of Agilent AriaMx Real-Time qPCR instruments to five research hospitals in India to support their COVID-19 initiatives and help them serve the community at large. As part of this effort, Agilent India partnered with Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Tata Medical Center Kolkata, Gujarat Technological University (GTU), Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology Delhi (CSIR-IGIB), and Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bengaluru.

“It’s an honor for Agilent to partner with these eminent institutes and hospitals in their pursuit of fostering innovation, supporting scientific development and furthering research initiatives in these trying times” said, Bharat Bhardwaj, Country General Manager Agilent India. “It is heart-warming to know that these instruments will add value to our customers’ research work in the fight against COVID-19, thus benefitting the community at large.”

In the words of Dr. Mohammed Faruq, Principal Scientist at CSIR-IGIB, “We thank Agilent and their entire team for extending their support in furthering our COVID-19 research initiatives at IGIB. Since the onset of the pandemic in India, the team at IGIB has been offering various research-based genome sequencing services to numerous government health centers and academia.” Dr. Faruq further added, “Currently, IGIB is supporting the Government of India in RT-PCR tests daily. This instrument from Agilent will make our setup more efficient and help increase the numbers of tests done every day. We also hope that it would prove its utility in various research exercises which IGIB is undertaking that includes high throughput molecular surveillance, vaccine breakthrough genome sequencing and reinfections sequencing of SARS-CoV-2.”

In addition to donating instruments, the Agilent Foundation earlier this year partnered with United Way India as its strategic corporate social responsibility partner to ensure end-to-end execution of its COVID-19 response program across different states of India. The Foundation gave cash grant of INR >1 Crore (~$138,000) to United Way India for ventilators and bipap machines to be distributed to district government hospitals in states of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. At the rural districts, the need for essential breathing devices continues not only in the current context but also in the longer-term to tackle any additional health exigencies. The Agilent Foundation also contributed matching funds to the Agilent India Employee Giving Program for supporting COVID-19 relief measures in India.

Agilent’s philanthropic efforts, through the Agilent Technologies Foundation, provides grants and funding for initiatives that enhance, enrich and support communities around the world where we can make a real difference where we live and work.