The EMPE Diagnostics has announced the setting up of their global production facility at Genome Valley in Hyderabad with an aim to produce two million Tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic kits per month.
The company will be investing around Rs 25 crores and will employ around 25 people in Hyderabad.
Currently, EMPE Diagnostics is conducting clinical evaluations in at least five countries for their diagnostic kits for tuberculosis.
The products to be produced in Hyderabad will be sold globally. The company also plans to invest around Rs 50 crores in this facility with additional employment for around 150 people. Over the years, the company is planning to invest around 25 Million Euros in the facility.
The announcement was made after Minister Mr. KT Rama Rao’s meeting with Dr. Pavan Asalapuram, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of EMPE Diagnostics at the World Economic Forum, Davos. Mr. Jayesh Ranjan IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Dept. and Mr. Shakthi M Nagappan, Director Lifesciences, Government of Telangana were also present during the meeting.
Mr. K.T Rama Rao said ‘’Tuberculosis is one of the ancient infections and even today, it remains a challenge for the medical world, causing a socio-economic burden for countries. I’m delighted to announce the expansion plans of EMPE Diagnostics for Hyderabad. I’m glad to note that Hyderabad will serve as the global production facility for the company.”
Dr. Pavan Asalapuram said that, among the top 30 high TB burden countries, India has more number of TB patients, while Eastern EU countries contain the highest proportion of multidrug resistance patients. Even today, two out of three receive incorrect antibiotics and keep spreading drug-resistant TB in the community.
Covid has pushed the progress in TB to at least 10 years back. Therefore, detection of TB and treating it with correct antibiotics has become much more important than before. I am glad that EMPE Diagnostics is working to solve a global humanitarian challenge. We are so thankful to the Minister Mr KTR and Telangana government for their support.“
Tuberculosis is the world’s deadliest infection, killing 4000 people every day. The Covid pandemic has almost stopped TB diagnosis, which has massively increased the number of TB infections and created a huge socio-economic burden across the globe. EMPE Diagnostics develops diagnostic solutions for infectious diseases with a special focus on antimicrobial resistance. It is committed to combating drug resistance in Tuberculosis (TB) by providing reliable diagnostic tests. EMPE Diagnostics’ mfloDx® technology can rapidly detect the TB causing bacteria and its drug-resistance profiles in less than 3 hours, directly from patients’ sputum samples without any requirement for expensive infrastructure.