Redefining quality in first point of patient care

Pathkind : Where quality is only reason & mission to be in business

DiaSys India is a global leader in the design and development of high quality, reliable and innovative clinical diagnostic equipment in clinical chemistry, haematology, urinalysis and point-of-care testing. DiaSys is following its mantra “Choosing Quality to be a solution provider for quality products, systems and services! Their focus is on understanding customer needs and demands, to create the best possible offering for them, has enabled us to gain acceptance and presence all over India at key institutions but also in rural places.

Sanjeev Vashitha, CEO, Pathkind and Dr Jan Gorka, CEO, DiaSys Diagnostics India Pvt Ltd shared with Medgate Today’s special correspondent their common obsession and vision for quality diagnostic services in India.

Dr Gorka, to begin with, kindly share your understanding of Indian diagnostic services market?

The Indian market is not really the easiest one than others in the world. The price sensitivity across market diversity makes the job very difficult when one does not correlate price with quality while being focused on quality patient care.

Brief us about how does HbA1c net technically work? How does the elimination of sample, and preparation for this test, will help doctors and overall clinical outcomes?

Yes, HbA1c Net is new enzymatic test. Enzymatic test determines HbA1c
concentration patient samples.

Does HbA1c Net require Calibrators and controls like other parameters? Do you also offer controls & calibrators?

We provide the test of the whole package. We provide the reagent to customers, and we provide controls & calibrators also. Most of the actual tests in the market is uno supplementary test and require lot of calibrations. HbA1c Net test is next generation test on Matrix platform. While enzymatic test needs only 2 point calibration and ensures double fold determination result. So this is very useful for customers also save cost at the end, and deal with easy procedure with outstanding calibration stability thus contributing to overall sales speedily facilitated by the respons910 platform.

How does HbA1c net fair compared to conventional HbA1c?

Firstly HbA1c Net offered by DiaSys can be done on the same machine, hence no additional equipment is required for smaller labs and secondly technology used by Diasys for the HbA1c Net test is accurate.

Please share the constraints in developing the markets for HbA1c
Net in tier 2 and 3 cities ?

Generally speaking, HbA1c is available in larger cities and in smaller towns,
sub urban areas, equipment to conduct HbA1c test is not available. Hence we focus on educating medical fraternity on benefits of HbA1c Net tests and it’s high accuracy & impact on clinical outcomes.

DiaSys has long been known for innovation in IVD market segment, Dr Gorka, Kindly share your new product development approach?

We always focus on new products in our company and keep looking for areas of improvisation. Generally speaking, developing something one just can’t plan 100%. It is always problematic, and one always faces challenges day by day. One has to stay focused on and ensure quality & safety before launching new products in the market.

Dr. Gorka, what are the guiding principles to build a partnership in
business?

DiaSys has been existing in the global market for 28 years. DiaSys always looks for long term relationship with partners. This is important to us. We don’t really focus on short term business, we want to grow business together with our partners and customers.
We consider long term relationship as one of the key strengths of DiaSys.

Mr Vasishtha, What made you to choose DiaSys as a partner for your mid segment lab business?

As you may be aware that India is a huge country and most of the lab chains of the organized sector are present in metros, tier 1, tier 2 & tier 3. We are also present in all these geographical markets encompassing all tiers. To further scale up and cater markets responsibly, we thought of choosing a partner who has good credibility, brand name, and after-sales services track record. These parameters are of paramount importance in ensuring quality deliverables especially in remote markets like tier 2 & 3 cities. Secondly, a long durability of reagent is very important and third, after sales & service. We scrutinized all available partnership options and found out a couple of companies who were capable, and finally zeroed in on DiaSys. DiaSys also strategically fits into mid-segment business model as it meets 200 tests/hour requirements of tier 2 & tier 3 cities.

How does DiaSys balance technology innovation with it’s traditional
biochemistry reagents?

Improvisation is a journey, not a destination and we are committed to it.
Off course we come from the routine table chemistry however we are shifting gears in sync with the market’s preparedness. While we need to appreciate the contribution of traditional diagnostic methods, however a commitment to improvisation is necessary to achieve real growth in critical areas like patient care. This is how we have shaped the DiaSys growth and future.
DiaSys was founded in 1991, we were the first company using liquid stable
reagents which were not normal at that time. Now, this technology has become a standard and benchmark for further improvisation.
We always try to give new additional features to our customers across the globe.

Dr Gorka, how do you see DiaSys business in India 5 years down the line?

DiaSys India is now 5 years old, for the next 5 years, we want to align our growth with that of industry. We want to strengthen our partnership with our existing business partners. We want to stay focused strongly in the Indian market. We wish medical fraternity across many specialities like endocrinology, diabetology, medicine etc to equally start at early stage. This technology by DiaSys will help them to deliver better outcomes.

Mr Vashishta, please let us know your industry insights and view on the growth of diagnostic services market in India?

Despite the rapid expansion of diagnostic services in our country especially in smaller towns with 100,000 plus labs, however, the quality of diagnostic services provided by these labs do not meet high standards critical to patient care.
While well-organized sector and players there of have done good work but a lot more to be done in terms of universal coverage of quality diagnostic services. As per our data, there are superior diagnostic services available in 300- 400 towns only. Another challenge as an industry we need to address is the affordability of quality diagnostic services. I am happy to share Pathkind has been quite successful in delivering affordable quality diagnostic services to all stakeholders. I see huge returns as
the market is ramping up @ 15-16% CAGR.

Mr Vashistha, kindly elaborates on Pathkind’s unique plan of universal coverage of diagnostic needs of Indian medical fraternity.

Yes, we have a unique model. We have a hub & sub-hub model, so we have
created a service platform. We have created a reference lab, to cater to our large network of labs in larger cities. In smaller towns, we are working as referral labs supported by collection centres. So we are trying to grow universal coverage in terms of reaching out the medical fraternity and masses in particular.
Our aim is to carry the sample from the collection centers within 2 hrs to the closest lab so that we are able to deliver faster diagnostic services as needed by all stakeholders.

Dr Gorka, How do you value synchronization of DiaSys business plans with that of Pathkind?

Pathkind is a very important customer to us especially in the North of India. We wanted to start our operations 18 months back in North India. I am delighted to share that together we adhered to this timeline. We hope this synchronization would continue in future market expansion
endeavours too.

Mr Vashishtha could you please share your experience with DiaSys?
It has been good so far. It’s important our business partner understands our points, which DiaSys really understands. The post sales services have met our expectations and we have not faced any problems. We hope to extend our business association in our expansion plans across India.

Thanks, Dr Gorka and Mr Vashishtha for sharing your views on Indian diagnostic markets