With its gargantuan population and growing demand for healthcare, India is a huge target for pharmas and devicemakers looking to capitalize on emerging markets. But access to the next-gen diagnostics that guide treatments in the West is largely lacking, and Indian patients often have to send samples away to the U.S. and U.K.
With that in mind, startup Core Diagnostics has acquired the technology and capital to provide high-tech assays to patients, absorbing OncoMDx's platform and drawing $5.1 million from Artiman Ventures. The company opened its New Delhi shop this week, offering tests in oncology, cardiology and other areas.
"Effective treatment for any disease begins with an accurate and timely diagnosis," CEO Mohan Uttarwar said in a statement. "While India has made tremendous progress in healthcare over the past decade, we lag behind the Western world when it comes to diagnostics. Our aim at Core is to bridge the diagnostic deficit."
Core has already partnered with CardioDx and Genentech, and Artiman partner Ramesh Radhakrishnan said the company--and India's diagnostics market as a whole--will only attract more attention as companies around the world recognize the country's unmet need.
"We have been tracking the innovation gap in clinical diagnostics (in India) for several years now," Radhakrishnan said in a statement. "It has been increasingly clear that upstream, i.e., the diagnostic part of the healthcare value chain needs to become as robust as the downstream, i.e., the therapeutic part."
- read Core's announcement