GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (GE), is investing $25 million in a special medical laboratory in Bangalore, India. The new laboratory will enable to develop and test new products for healthcare market. The company expects to export more technology developed at Bangalore in the near future. The company is aiming at doubling the revenues from India to $1 billion in three to five years.
“This would allow more next generation products to be developed and tested, particularly for India,” said John Dineen, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare. This laboratory is part of a new green centre that has cost GE an additional $50 million.
Dineen said that the company viewed India as a strategic market. “We are here not to serve the market, but to build it.”
Omar Ishrak, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare Systems, said that a new electrocardiogram system called Mac 400, developed for the Indian market, was launched as Mac 800 in the US previous week.
GE Healthcare is also entering the home healthcare market in India with the introduction of sleep care and home respiratory system. On March 24, 2009, the company has announced acquisition of Vital Signs Inc., in the home health care segment.
“It is a strong, strategic fit and allows us to address the individual patient directly, for the first time,” said V. Raja, president and chief executive, GE Healthcare South Asia.
Philips Electronics India Ltd., the company’s competitor, has announced its entry into India’s home healthcare market on March 20, 2009 with products in the same two categories.