AccoBiotech Partners Medilab to Market Test Kits in Kazakhstan

From Zairina Zainudin ASTANA, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- Medical diagnostic test kits manufacturer, AccoBiotech Sdn Bhd has partnered with Astana-based Medilab LLP to market and distribute its Rapid Diagnostics Test Kits in Kazakhstan. AccoBiotech Chief Executive Officer, R. Sivalingam, said the partnership would generate a turnover of between US$30 million and US$50 million over the next five years. "We are still waiting for registration approval from the local regulatory. I think it will take about three to six months, then we can start selling the test kits probably early next year," he told press conference after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both companies here Thursday. The MoU was signed between Sivalingam and Medilab Director, Aliya Dauletovna, and witnessed by Malaysian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Syed Mohamad Bakri Syed Abd Rahman. MediLab is a subsidiary of Mediker Group of Companies, the largest private healthcare company in Kazakhstan. It markets and supplies medical equipment and other hospital products in Kazakhstan, Russia and Spain. Under the MoU, MediLab will market and distribute AccoBiotech's Rapid Diagnostics Test Kits that are used to detect various types of diseases within a few minutes, including HIV, H1N1, dengue, malaria, Hepatitis C, and Influenza A/B. This MoU is set to change the healthcare landscape in Kazakhstan as it will be the first time that such fast and accurate diagnostics test kits, particularly for detecting HIV, syphilis and certain types of narcotics, are available in the country. Medilab Advisor, Smanov Kainazar Dosibekuli, said the domestic market demand for the test kits would be huge, especially at the border areas where it could benefit the tourism industry, as well as, from neighbouring countries. On the back of its bright outlook, he said Medilab planned to distribute the test kits to other countries including Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, Sivalingam said the new partnership would increase AccoBiotech's test kits production by up to 70 per cent with the potential value of RM100 million. About 95 per cent of the total annual production would be shipped to other countries while the remaining production were for domestic consumption, he said. Kazakhstan is the fourth country that AccoBiotech is exporting its test kits to, after Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Sivalingam said the company aimed to penetrate more new markets in the future especially the third world countries in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific region. Asked whether the company has any plan for listing, he said the exercise could materialise in the next three to five years with the London Stock Exchange as a potential bourse. -- BERNAMA