French Firm GeneStore’s Indian Founder Introduced Affordable COVID-19 RT-PCR in Indian market

Anubhav Anusha is the founder of the healthcare diagnostic and research company, GeneStore, which has launched the world’s most affordable COVID-19 RT-PCR test kit at a price of Rs. 199. Anusha is seen briefing Indian Home Minister Amit Shah about the kit. (ANI photo)

ANI/NewsVoir

NEW DELHI – The largest laboratories in India have cleared quality audits with 100 percent success based on GeneStore COVID-19 RT-PCR kits.

In March 2020, the entire nation went under lockdown, and the World Health Organization 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 Rs. 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 Rs. 500 to Rs.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,” said Anusha, global CEO of GeneStore France.

“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 of 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 percent of the RT-PCR market in India within a period of 60 days.

Furthermore, GeneStore was been able to prove a point critical to Atmanirbhar 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.