LC growth in India means business opportunities for vendors
December 20, 2007
Agilent Technologies Inc. this week confirmed it had finalized its biggest sale to date of analytical instrumentation in India. The sale includes more than 50 instruments, mainly Rapid Resolution Liquid Chromatography (RRLC) systems, plus gas chromatography systems and headspace samplers to Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd., one of the top 15 companies in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
In addition to being Agilent's biggest sale in India, this is also Orchid's largest order from any chromatography manufacturer. The Agilent 1200 Series RRLC system is supposed to provide 20 times faster analysis and 60% higher resolution than conventional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), while maintaining accuracy and sensitivity. It is designed to provide the high analysis speed and resolution while keeping system pressure at a minimum.
In addition, Orchid purchased the new 7890A GC, which features real-time self-monitoring and diagnostic capabilities. The company claims the new GC instrument will deliver faster oven cool-down and robust backflushing for higher analysis rates.
The RRLC systems caught the interest of Orchid, says P.Y. Naidu, Orchid vice president, QC and R&D, "and subsequent demonstrations at our site proved its worthiness. Instrument reliability is a factor in this decision.”
According to Sanjiv Dhar, Agilent country operations manager, India, the investment by Orchid represents a number of considerations in addition to price. "First, the instruments must deliver consistently good results, year-in and year-out. Second, they must easily integrate into existing workflows. Third, they must be extremely reliable.”
These comments indicate the systems will likely be heavily used in the competitive Indian pharmaceutical industry. Liquid chromatography is growing by leaps and bounds in India, and is expected to reach $250 million by 2010.
Companies such as Spinco has regularly doubled and tripled sales in the preceding 20 years. It took 13 years for them to reach 1,000 installations, yet from 2000 they’ve installed more than 4,000 HPLC systems. Shimadzu is another big seller of HPLC, having sold more than 6,500 systems since they entered the market in 1983.
Solid data is lacking, but source report that the Indian market for HPLC was $125 million in 2006, which means growth rates of 22-25% are possible over the next few years. The pharmaceutical industry will represent about 70% of that growth through 2010, and associated fast LC systems will see annual growth of at least 20%.
SOURCES: Agilent, BioSpectrum
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