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Bangalore: : Wipro Ltd has created a new business division - Wipro Healthcare and Life Science - which will focus on offering IT and bio-informatics solutions to the healthcare and life science sector.
To get this business rolling, the company has decided to merge its Wipro Biomed business currently reported under the ‘others’ segment and transfer the clients of Wipro Technologies Healthcare practice to the newly created division. DA Prasanna, who was till now the CEO of Wipro GE Medical Systems Ltd will be the vice-chairman of Wipro Ltd and will lead the new business. Mr Prasanna will also be the chairman of Wipro Fluid Power Ltd and oversee its operations besides continuing to be on the board of Wipro GE Medical Systems.
The division will begin operations from a base of $15 million in revenues (as reported on March 31, 2002) primarily from the Wipro Technologies healthcare practice and Wipro Biomed put together and already has close to 140 employees attached to it. Wipro is also looking at leveraging the customer relationships its joint venture company - Wipro GE Medical Systems Ltd - has built up. According to market reports, the addressable market for opportunities in Bio-IT is pegged at $25 billion, which is growing at 20 per cent annually.
Speaking to the media, Mr Prasanna said the healthcare and life science business will focus on three key areas - IT solutions for the healthcare segment, bioinformatics solutions and solutions for the medical/analytical device makers. The bioinformatics solutions will be specifically directed towards working with pharma companies to help reduce drug discovery cycle time. The development centres for the new business will be in Bangalore and Hyderabad. “This is completely a high-end business which is positioned at the top of the value chain, so this is not a commodity business. Also this will in no way interfere with the Wipro-GE Medical Systems business and in fact will be complementary,” he said.
While Wipro Healthcare and Life Science is currently putting in place the right talent required for the business , Wipro’s existing network of relations with global players like GE Medical Systems, Beckman Coulter, Agilent, etc will be leveraged. Wipro is looking at collaborating with universities to jointly set up post graduate courses for healthcare and bioinformatics related subjects as part of its activities to cultivate the right talent pool for this specialised line of business, Mr Prasanna added.
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