PTI

New Delhi: Riding on the success of its new tool that helps in identifying appropriate therapy for blood cancer Dabur OncQuest, cancer diagnostics arm of the Dabur Group, is gearing up for an expansion in the South Asian region.

“We are already present in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Now we are focussing on other neighbouring countries for our new tool CML Quest,” Dabur OncQuest General Manager Aditya Burman said.

CML Quest is a diagnostic tool based on the Imanitib Drug Resistance Mutation Analysis (IRMA) and helps clinicians identify if Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) patients are resistant to a given drug, and decide whether higher dosages would be required or if a combination therapy would be needed.

He said the company’s decision to focus on the neighbouring markets and go slow on the more lucrative western markets was taken after giving due consideration to logistics for sending of blood samples.

“We understand markets like the US and Europe are lucrative, but we also need to keep in mind the time required for sending samples to India for testing and under what conditions these would be sent. It would be better to have a presence there rather, which at present we are not considering,” he said.

Burman said the company has supplied the new tool to about 150 hospitals across 40 cities in India.

“The plan is to make it available pan-India with focus on metro cities and their adjoining areas,” he said adding, the test costs Rs5,000.

Considering its research and development strength, Dabur OncQuest would also start providing clinical research support to other pharmaceutical firms, he said.