GeneStore France: Helping India with affordable RTPCR test kits
New Delhi : In March 2020, the entire nation went under lockdown, and the World Health Organization (WHO) claimed that the only way to curb the spread of COVID-19 was by maximizing the number of tests. It was at this juncture that GeneStore France, a French MNC founded and led by its Indian founder, Anubhav Anusha launched the world's most affordable COVID-19 RT-PCR test kit at a price of INR 199 approved by both the French Ministry of Health and ICMR.
Prior to the launch of the GeneStore France “Detection Expert RT-PCR” kit for COVID-19, the pricing within the diagnostics industry globally was controlled primarily by large companies based out of North America and Europe. Furthermore, during the initial days of the outbreak, RT-PCR test kits in India were retailed at a price point of INR 500 to INR 1000.
As a company, GeneStore faced one major challenge, primarily of demonstrating to the leading laboratories in India that delivering consistent quality was in fact possible at the affordable price of GeneStore’s RT PCR kit. However, the company smoothly sailed through the stringent validation processes of these laboratories, many of which are CAP (College of American Pathology) accredited, due to the fact that GeneStore has an end-to-end manufacturing set-up for all raw materials in Europe and India that allows us to pass on the cost benefit directly to the market.
"My laboratory has used GeneStore's RT-PCR kit for COVID-19 since its launch and I am fully satisfied with its consistent quality and performance", said Dr. Y. P. Singh, Head of Department, Molecular Biology and HLA, for India’s largest diagnostic testing company .
The tremendous advances made by GeneStore’s Atmanirbhar and Make-in-India initiative, allowed the company to capture 40% of the RT-PCR market in India within a period of 60 days. Furthermore, GeneStore was been able to prove a point critical to Atmanirbharta and Make-in-India, that high-tech RT-PCR kits can be manufactured at a price point affordable to the Indian masses at a European quality standard.
