One of the fast emerging Healthcare Company, IRIS Healthcare Technologies Private Limited, incorporated by an experienced and highly competent team from the Diagnostic Industry; its mission is to provide innovative solutions for the requirements of the Clinical Laboratories in the field of Clinical Chemistry, Haematology, ELISA, IFA, Quality Control, Microbiology and Critical Care.
Their main focus is to source a host of high quality products, which are internationally acclaimed and provide appropriate back up with excellent service and application support along with continuous medical knowledge initiatives.
(Following is a piece of an interview with Mr. Sreeram Gopal, CEO of IRIS Healthcare Technologies Private Limited reviewing his company, goals and objectives to Dr. A. Velumani, CEO, Thyrocare Technologies Pvt. Ltd, on the present diagnostics market, as well as vision and plans for the future)
SG: Good morning sir! It is my pleasure to introduce our company IRIS Healthcare Technologies Private Limited, a company that began its full fledged operations since April 2008 with a core group of six expert members, each with an average experience of about 15 years in the IVD Industry marketing quality products.
AVM: Quite impressing. But, there are so many companies in instruments and reagent business. Is it yet another to join the bandwagon or going to be different….
SG: Well, let me try to impress you further. We are here with a mission ‘To professionally serve the healthcare & research community with innovative products and to provide high standards of service’. Elaborating on this further let me tell you that, we have either completed or working on the following important commitment of having adequate sales and service setup and distribution network in all major cities and towns in India. We also are looking for the after sales customer support and establish a long-term bond with our customers, which in turn, would increase our market value in future.
AVM: I have always compared companies on the basis of their strengths and strongly believe in that philosophy. Could you please highlight your fundamental strengths in brief?
SG: Any organization, which is newly setup can only grow if its team has all the right skills and the ability to self analyze continuously. I would hence define my team on three platforms: We have
- A powerful driving sales force,
- A dedicated engineering or service team, and
- A highly efficient technical application support.
Let me also add that, all these teams are adequately trained in various diagnostic technologies and are passionate about giving sound quality products and service to our customers.
AVM: I am told, you have a good core team?
SG: Right, Sir. I am ably assisted by Mr. Lalit Chakravorty (VP-Operations), Mrs. Sarita Thadhani (GM-Sales), Mr. Sandeep Debroy (DGM-Engg Services), Mr. Sushanta Sen (DGM-North & East) and Mr. Srinivasan (DGM-South).
AVM: We, in the diagnostic market tend to think that oh! Here comes one more player in the market with the same goods. How do you see your company different in terms of the product line?
SG: Yes, that is a good question. I would like to highlight here the word IRIS- it stands for ‘INNOVATIVE REAGENTS, INSTRUMENTS AND SERVICES’.
We believe in importing reagents and instruments of quality keeping in mind that, these products should be the latest in technology coming from strong research based companies, user friendly test formats, and aid in cutting down both time and costs to our customers.
We are looking to bring unique products not just pertaining to the Biochemistry segment but also for Immunoassay, Hematology and Microbiology areas. For e.g. we have tied up with ADALTIS for their systems like ‘Eclectica’ and excellent range of ELISA kits and automated ELISA processors. Mr. Narendra Kumar who has recently joined as their Country Manager for India has assured us of complete backup support.
AVM: Which companies are you tying up with for importing your products
SG: We presently have tie-ups with companies that have the same philosophy of thought and practice, to name a few are
- ADALTIS for Immunoassay systems and ELISA products.
- WERFEN GROUP / BIOKIT for BQA Random access analyzer and specific protein reagents
- WERFEN GROUP / INOVA DIAGNOSTICS for Kits of Autoimmune diseases.
- DIALAB for Clinical chemistry reagents & Serology kits.
- DTN 410K for Semi-automated analyzer.
- CENTRONIC GmbH Dedicated reagents for Hitachi analyzers.
- CAROLINA LIQUID CHEMISTRIES CORP. Dedicated reagents or Synchron and Olympus analyzers.
- SYVA ® EMIT SIEMENS TDM and DOA kits.
- DIAMOND DIAGNOSTICS Electrolyte analyzers.
- MINDRAY Semi-automated analyzer.
AVM: Oh! That looks interesting and exhaustive. It would take some time to understand some of the special technologies like autoimmune diagnostics and drug testing. To end at a high note, who all would be your target customers and how are you going to reach them?
SG: Well, our target customers would be Government and Corporate Hospitals, Individual Pvt. Labs, Reference Labs, CROs and Pharmaceutical Research Labs. We have appointed distributors in key cities, with a committed support to us. Our endeavour is to expand our coverage and have sales, service setup and distribution network in all major cities and towns in India. We have already initiated with some initial operations in Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, thereby covering some major metropolis.
AVM: What about your commitment to quality assurance?
SG: Thank you for reminding me on this important issue. We are in the process of tying up with Royal College of Pathol-ogists of Australasia (RCPA) to provide external proficiency testing, quality assessment and appropriate education programs to medical testing pathology laboratories. These programs are intended to continually improve the entire gambit of pathology services including Anatomical pathology, Cytopathology, Chemical pathology, Hematology, Immunology, Serology, Synovial fluid, Transfusion, Molecular biology, and Microbiology.
The idea here is to cater to even smaller laboratories, by having flexibility in the number of samples and frequency so that the inherent thought process in our laboratories that quality assurance program is costly can be effectively dealt with.
AVM: Finally, one last question. What is IRIS Healthcare Technologies goal for the future?
SG: Our long term goal is towards expansion of the diagnostic industry in India and creation of a space where the laboratory technician feel confident to perform new technologies in a user friendly and correct way, in a cost effective manner, without compromising on the quality. We would like to incorporate products, that offer you highest level of satisfaction and is comparable to the best technologies in the world.
AVM: It would be my pleasure to be of help and support to you, Sreeram and would like to wish you and your team all the best on behalf of Thyrocare Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
SG: Thank you very much for your time and best wishes, Sir. I am looking forward for a close and long association with Thyrocare and work towards the realisation of our mutual dream of bringing class diagnostics within reach of the common man, the essential ethos of Thyrocare being – Service with World Class, Quality at Affordable Rates.