S MOHAN KUMAR
Brief us about your own journey in Peerless Biotech.
I was born and brought up in a very small town near Kollam in Kerala where I completed my education. I shifted to Chennai to build my career. I started my professional journey with a finance company in Chennai and then joined Peerless Biotech Pvt Ltd in 2002.
Peerless Biotech was incepted in 2001 as a marketing company. At that time this company had its focus on sourcing high quality world class IVD products from the international market and launching & marketing these products in the Indian market. The company looked at this as its mission and as its way to contribute towards the growth of the Indian IVD industry.
As I joined Peerless Biotech at a very early stage, I got exposure to various aspects of the business in a short period.
During those years, I was guided by two visionary professionals Mr. Jose Gill and Mr. Vinayak Bhat who possibly identified the entrepreneurial spirit within me. The extraordinary trust and support extended by the then B-o-D gave me confidence to drive Peerless Biotech aggressively and make it one of the leading IVD companies in India. I remember, while I started my career with Peerless Biotech, it was a company with mainly rapid tests and the turnover was less than $ 1 million.
Today we have a broad product range with our presence in multifarious segments and it is a company of more than $ 11 million. We are proud of our Product Management & Service Team at our headquarters and our Sales Team spread all over the country. Our strong distribution network of about 600 distributors is our another strength, built over the last several years.
We want to make Peerless Biotech one of the top five companies in the Indian IVD industry, within the next five years. Our sales target for 23-24 is $ 25 million.
Who are your major principals and what will you like to share about your association with them ?
Being a marketing company, we are associated with several principals. But, today I will like to focus on only one out of them, where we have a very special relationship. Our association with ACON laboratories, Inc, USA has been for last 19 years since 2002. Today, ACON products are contributing almost 50% of
our total sales volume. Presently we are on the verge of taking this strategic relationship to the next level.
Please let us know more about your journey with ACON.
Together, ACON and Peerless Biotech have gone through several ups and downs. The relationship incepted with the objective of marketing ACON's rapid tests in Indian IVD market. However, at one stage, ACON decided to exit from the rapid tests business for some strategic reasons. This was a big setback for Peerless Biotech. During that difficult phase ACON supported Peerless Biotech, going out of the way. This strengthened our relationship further.
That was the time, ACON and Peerless Biotech brought in a major change in the strategy and decided to focus on the pointof-care product range. The second phase of journey started with On-Call Blood Glucose Monitoring System. The focus was on empowering clinics, nursing homes and hospitals to use Blood Glucose Monitoring System near the bed of patients.
Today, On-Call is undoubtedly one of the leading brands for Blood Glucose Monitoring System in the nursing homes and hospitals segment. Now, we are working on to make On-Call as one of the popular brands in the OTC segment also. Peerless Biotech has also been the partner of ACON in Urnialysis segment with Mission brand. Today we have more than 6,000 labs in India using ACON's semi-automated urine analysis systems. MISSION is well recognized in the Indian IVD market as the most popular semi-automated urine analysis system.
While Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems and Urinalysis have been our stronghold, we always thought what more we can do for the Indian IVD industry. We found, there is a necessity of Hemoglobin Meter which can be used by even in clinics or in primary health centres where there is a scarcity of technical manpower and proper laboratory set-up. Even today, Hb Meter is an important requirement in every basic healthcare centers due to the high prevalence of anaemia in India. With ACON’s QUIK-CHECK Hb Meters, Peerless Biotech is now empowered to take a part in the National Nutritional Anaemia Control Programme (NNACP) in India.
ACON being a progressive & innovative organization and Peerless as their strategic partner in India, we always wished to introduce advance technological products in India. The process continued with Mission HA 360 Hematology Analyzers and On-Call A1c point-of-care HbA1c Analyzer which have taken their own space in the respective segments.
As well, our endeavour kept on continuing in exploring and educating the users with more point-of-care products like Cholesterol meters, Ketone meters and many more. However, it seems we need to work more on educating the potential users as many matured point-of-care products are still in the early growth stage in our country.
What are the upcoming products from ACON and how you plan to take this cooperation ahead in the future?
During this unprecedented period of COVID, we wanted to contribute towards the nation and wanted to be a part of India’s Covid War. This time also ACON stood beside us. We believe, at present India needs mass scale COVID testing for screening purpose which is possible with COVID Antigen Rapid Card Tests. ACON’s Flowflex SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Assay has given us an opportunity to make it happen.
ACON and Peerless Biotech are working together on Molecular Diagnostics with advanced extraction and PCR systems suitable for Indian health care systems. The products will be launched soon.
Though at present, ACON products are imported, however, we are working on the idea of a joint venture and we would be a part of the 'MAKE IN INDIA' mission.
During this unprecedented period of COVID, we wanted to contribute towards the nation and wanted to be a part of India's Covid War.