With the threat of swine flu looming large, private pathology laboratories like SRL Ranbaxy, Dr Lal PathLabs, Metropolis Health Service and Quest Diagnostics plan to import testing kits for the H1N1 virus. The government has announced to import 22,000 kits in addition to 27,000 that were earlier sourced from the US.

“We are in the process of awarding approvals to private laboratories after officials from health ministry satisfy themselves,” an official told Financial Chronicle. At present, every test costs Rs 5,000 while for a positive case, this cost goes up to Rs 10,000 as the test is repeated on the patient.

“The ministry has decided to import another 22,000 kits. The government would spend about Rs 1.75 crore on imports,” Dr V M Katoch, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said.

The health ministry has also approached ICMR, which is the apex body for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, to develop kits within the country to reduce the cost of testing. At present, the tests are being conducted at 18 government laboratories free of cost.

Dr Arvind Lal, chairman and managing director of Dr Lal PathLabs, said, ”We will import kits... But we already have the real-time polymerase chain reaction and other facilities to test swine flu because the same technology is used to test HIV, Hepatatis B and genotyping of tuberculosis.”

When asked if the government plans to subsidise tests done in the private laboratories, the official said, “By allowing tests to be conducted by private laboratories, we intend to reduce the burden on government laboratories… the government, however, would not provide any financial assistance for the same.”

The ministry aims at stocking such kit before the next wave of swine flu hits the country that is expected during the winter season. Besides stockpiling test kits, the government has decided to stockpile 20 million dosages of Tamiflu drug. Companies including Ranbaxy, Cipla, Roche, Strides Arcolab and Hetero drugs have showed their willingness to supply drugs at short notice.

Shares of Ranbaxy closed up 6.17 per cent at Rs 277.10 per share on Tuesday, while those of Natco closed up 18.93 per cent at Rs 94.85 per share.

Strides Arcolab also closed up 4.78 per cent at Rs 158.90 per share, but Cipla closed down 0.48 per cent at Rs 280.30 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange.