Speaking to The Financial Express here, B Ramanna, president of CHPL said the introduction of such kits would drastically reduce the time taken for dignosing diseases after conducting the test. At present, the diagnostic time taken for processing blood samples to detect the presence of infectious diseases like malaria and hepatitis is a minimum of 24 hours."Our rapid test kits will bring down the disgnostic time to two hours thereby enabling doctors to commence treatment within a couple of hours of conducting the tests," Ramanna said.

CHPL is the only pharma company which has introduced dengue test kits in the market. Though the market is seasonal and limited mainly to the northern states and Kerala, CHPL has already established a Rs 1 crore market for these kits. The kits are priced at Rs 5,500 for 25 tests.

The company has earmarked an investment of Rs 1 crore for development of the new kits for malaria and hepatitis B and C within the next few months and Ramanna revealed that the kits would be introduced in the market in September this year. Asked about the pricing of these kits, Ramanna confessed that while this remained to be worked out "the kits would definitely be affordable and perhaps even cheaper than the existing tests for these diseases if we are to succeed in capturing the market."

However, unlike the pregnancy test kits which the company is now attempting to popularise as an over the counter (OTC) product, the rapid test kits for infectious diseases would only be available in pathology labs and hospitals since they would require blood samples of patients making it difficult to conduct these tests on oneself. Interestingly, pregnancy test kits which were introduced into the Indian market by domestic players some three years ago, are fast gaining popularity not only in urban centres but in rural areas and interiors as well. According to Ramanna, the sale of these kits has already crossed the 10 million mark representing a Rs 14-15 crore market. Of the total market share, the Mumbai-based Rapid Diagnostics has cornered 20 per cent of the market with its Acon pregnancy kit followed by CHPL and Dr Reddy's with 10 per cent each with their Accutest and fast forward kits and the Calcutta-based J Mitra with another 10 per cent market share.

The remaining 50 per cent of the market is held by small time importers who mostly import one-time consignments, depending on demand, from countries like Korea, Japan and Canada. "The minute any of the domestic players decide to expand their market share, it is these small importers who will be squeezed out," said Ramanna. Buoyed by the response to the pregnancy test kits, CHPL has also recently made a low-profile product extension by launching its ovulation predictor strips, Acuplan, in the market. These kits, available only with gynaecologists and family planning counsellors are priced at Rs 1,160 for 20 tests. "We made a quiet entry into the market two months ago but now we are planning to market the product more aggressively after the positive response received,"say Ramanna. CHPL is the only company to have launched such a kit in the market thus far.

The hospital disposables division of CHPL is also planning to sign an exclusive agreement in April with the UK-based Antec International for marketing Virkon - a medicinal disinfectant in India. "If the response to the product is good, the company would go in or manufacturing this product in India within 12 months from the date of the launch of the imported version," disclosed Ramanna. At present, Antec has five manufacturing facilities for the product in the world.