Vendor Watch

PerkinElmer India ties up with ICMR; expands product base

Our News Bureau - Mumbai

PerkinElmer India, a wholly owned subsidiary of US based PerkinElmer, and a global technology provider in health sciences and photonics, has unveiled its latest generation of products, as a part of its expansion plan for the fast growing Indian life science and instrumentation market. Highlighting the company's India specific business plans, Gregory L Summe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PerkinElmer, stated that in the current scenario, PerkinElmer's strategic priorities are relative to the health and environmental opportunities that lie in India. He said, "The combination of our products, our applications expertise and our service capabilities are unmatched in the industry and we believe that they will enable us to achieve our ultimate objective, which is helping our Indian customers improve the quality of life for its people. In India, analytical science is the main focus as the Indian pharma is growing."

According to Jai Shankar, President, PerkinElmer India, the company is expanding its product base in the country, which would help scientists advance the pace and precision of research and testing in a wide range of markets. Announcing the company's two year tie-up with Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), whereby research on genetic screening of newborns will be conducted at five centres spanning Kolkata, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, Shankar said that PerkinElmer would be presenting a white paper to the Health Ministry on genetic screening for India, once ICMR furnishes the critical data.

Emphasizing on the importance of genetic screening, Shankar stated that prenatal and new born screening will be country's most critical areas of health concern, since the percentage of genetic disorders in India is very high. "Pre-natal and neo-natal screening has been widely adopted by most countries in Europe and globally with PerkinElmer screening almost four million infants annually in US alone," he said. "In a country like India where two newborns die every minute, prenatal and neonatal screening can help in early detection of many treatable disorders, thereby improving the lives of both mother and child," added Summe while talking about genetic screening products. He further stated the company's key products include analytical instrumentation for various sectors, which include food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, packaging, polymers, bio fuels and petroleum sector to name a few.

According to Dr Lapo Paladini, Vice-President - Global Sales and Marketing, and President, Asia for PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences, to further support its growth in the region, PerkinElmer had been expanding its presence in India by focused investments for long term growth. The company currently employs approximately 200 people in Bangalore, Baroda, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune and Thane. It has set up a Global Application Development Center for R&D in Mumbai and also has a demo centre for its analytical instrumentation and life science technology range. PerkinElmer had recently acquired the remaining minority interest in PerkinElmer India from Labindia Instruments, making the Indian outfit a wholly owned subsidiary. The company had acquired eight companies in 2006. In 2007, PerkinElmer made three major acquisitions - Evotech (in Germany), Improvision (in Britain) and Euroscreen (in Belgium) on the basis of products, technology and geographical benefits to the seven businesses of the company all over the world.