Financial Express
 
Genetics plays a crucial role in how a disease develops, is diagnosed, and is treated. The global genetic testing market size was valued at USD 7,421.08 million in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.0% from 2023 to 2030.
 
Genetic testing analyzes DNA to identify changes or mutations that may influence health, disease risk, or treatment options. It helps diagnose inherited conditions, guide personalized treatments, and inform preventive care strategies. Early insights from testing empower individuals to make proactive health decisions.
 
MedGenome has been one of the key players in India’s genetic testing space and in the last one decade has expanded its operations within South Asia as well as globally.
 
In a recent interaction with Financial Express.com, MedGenome’s recently appointed Chairman of the Board and Managing Partner with Novo Holdings Asia, Dr Amit Kakar talked about opportunities and growth drivers for genetic testing industry in India, emerging trends in the field of genomics in India and globally, upcoming business plan and more. Excerpt:
 
You were recently appointed as the Board of Chairman. How are you planning to take these responsibilities forward and are there any plans or particular segment that you want to focus on?
I think the first and most important thing is that India is our biggest focus and priority because that’s where MedGenome originated from and that’s where we have a large market opportunity as well as potential growth.
 
When we started this journey, we came in as an investor about two and a half years ago. Our mission was how can we democratize genomics. Genomics, when it started many years ago, was still unaffordable because of the pricing and cost points and so forth. MedGenome has done a remarkable job of bringing the prices down and also a great amount of education to the market and the people for adoption. So, I think we want to take this journey forward and we want to go more and more into the realm of what we call it as integrated diagnostics.
 
The second is how do we also make sure that we are able to bring in because things are changing consistently. We are constantly working on how do we bring that innovation and that technology to the Indian population. So not just as the chairman, but also as somebody who is with Novo holdings, how can we bring those technology, accessibility to lead the patients. And big part of that today is also AI and machine learning. And how do we incorporate these new technologies into what MedGenome is offering to the population.

How do you see India tapping into potential opportunities present in the global landscape?
 
India itself has its own challenges as things are evolving. Ten years ago, we were focusing more on communicable diseases which continues to be a challenge till today. NCDs are picking up a lot and part of that is an aging population and diseases like cardiometabolic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, oncology are
becoming more and more prevalent.
 
We want bring in the technology and facilities that is present in the evolved markets. But that’s also affordability is the question because the treatments out there are very expensive. So again back to how do we manage the changing face of Indian disease subset with a more affordable solution? I think that’s where MedGenome has done something very remarkable. We’re not just a mere service providers. MedGenome is actually developing its own tests and protocols. And the reason they’re doing that is because they have a large focus on in-house research.
 
MedGenome’s investment in the multi-omics, especially in an area like bioinformatics has been so big because they need somebody to interpret that data. So, I think that’s the other part that’s been a learning that we have taken in from across the globe and build some of these small strong suites to provide the right answer.
 
This year MedGenome also completed a decade. How has been the journey so far? What is the plan for the next decade?
 
The journey is of affordability and accessibility, because otherwise adoption is going to be a big problem. Couple of decades back, genomic sequencing price points were in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today that’s now come down to a few $100. So that’s a big paradigm shift. Not only that, but the machines have also evolved over a period of time.
 
Second, we have brought latest technology and the latest platforms into India. But at the same time, we also wanted to make sure that the test that we are offering in these machines are affordable. Because there’s no point in having a million-dollar worth of machine and you’re making such expensive tests, nobody could afford. So we develop our own tests.
 
Our third approach has been how do we then become the number one provider for integrated diagnostics and that’s where we’ve entered into several partnerships as you’ve seen and in fact one of the recent one has been in the reserve with the GenX Diagnostics. We’ve also done another one in north called Prognosis and then south called Trident. This is allowing us the access to not just the bigger cities, but even Tier II, tier III cities and providing, as I said, integrated diagnostics. So that’s what we will be focusing on in the next couple of years.
 
What are some of the recent trends that you have observed in the genetic testing industry segment? What is the status of these trends globally and in India?
 
There’s more D2C testing which is more like early screening for patients. Earlier You would probably use genomics only when it was a late stage disease, when you would trying to see what kind of drug you want to use for the patient and so forth. But now MedGenome has been developing some test, like the Genessense as one of them, which allows certain kind of screening parameters. That means now you’re able to incorporate that when you go for a routine checkup. There is has also been an uptick in the usage of AI and machine learning in data interpretation. There’re a whole lot of tests coming out for rare diseases.
 
MedGenome also spends a lot of time today educating the doctors, the hospital administrators, the lab heads. And I think now that’s extending even to patients.
 
What are your upcoming plans with respect to business growth, especially in FY26?
We are taking a strong approach towards integrated diagnostics. So where our mission is to see how we can actually grow, expand the business both organically and inorganically on a PAN India scale. That’s the first, sort of focus for us. Part of that as I said is, we’ve already embarked on three partnerships in the region. We’re looking at similar, more partnerships in the region and at the same time introduced more many of tests in these facilities and these labs that we have. First, India is going to be our first focus at the same time, we’re starting to see a lot of traction in markets outside of India, ex-US international markets. So we have seen a lot of activity in Latin America, Middle East, Turkey and also Africa. We’re already starting to see a lot of activity. So we’re helping MedGenome in Southeast Asia to make their sort of presence in big markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and so forth. There’s a lot to do In India and going simultaneously at the same time as the international markets that’s going to be our approach for 2026.
 
Could you please elaborate a bit more about what sort of like expansion are you looking at?
 
From a commercial standpoint, India is going to be a big focus and we are looking at both organic and inorganic growth. Both. US is purely a different business– it’s a research business. I think outside of India right now, we are adopting the LINC Model. Or if they want to send the samples to us in India. That’s what we are working on at the moment, but if there is a right opportunity in the right partnership in the right location we’d be happy to put out lab but with the LINC model a lot of places already has labs today. We are approaching multi-pronged partnerships as a part of our business expansion plans.