The Hindu : Wipro HealthCare revs up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 25, 2002

Business

Business

Wipro HealthCare revs up

By Preeti Mishra

BANGALORE OCT. 24. Following the footprints of Wipro Infotech and Wipro Technologies which drove market capitalisation of Wipro during the Eighties and Nineties through hardware manufacture and outsourcing services, the newly formed division Wipro HealthCare and Life Science (WHL) of Wipro has also set its sights high.

Leveraging on its domain expertise in healthcare and life sciences, Wipro HealthCare and Life Science plans to drive the growth of Wipro over the next decade. If need be `acquisitions will also be considered if acquisitions are the only way to increase'. As of now, however, Wipro HealthCare is taking the organic route by doubling its existing staff strength with plans to recruit 250-300 people by the year-end. Additionally, staff from the GE Medical Systems Information Technology (GEMSIT) business would be integrated with WHL. The acquisition of part of GEMSIT business is expected to be completed by the year-end.

Investing in the `Tomorrow transformational stream of healthcare and life science' makes sense for Wipro since the company has over 15 years of knowledge inventory in areas such as imaging technology, pathology and health delivery systems through Wipro Biomed and its partnership with GE Medical Systems. This domain expertise and applications would now be extended to new areas such as clinical trials, integration of enterprise and clinical systems and drug discovery, D. A. Prasanna, CEO, Wipro HealthCare and Life Science, and Vice-Chairman, Wipro, told The Hindu.

"We are not looking at mere BPO in healthcare but delivering value to healthcare systems," remarked Mr. Prasanna. Factor in data like $800 million spent in R&D during the drug discovery process by pharmaceutical companies, estimates of life sciences area being ten times greater than healthcare (valued at $20 billion), cracking the human genome code and advances in genetics, opportunities for companies such as WHL is tremendous, explained Mr. Prasanna.

WHL has already bagged four clients (including one contract research organisation) with revenues of Rs. 24.80 crores during the second quarter ended September 30, 2002. Besides garnering more clients with services such as digitising data accumulated during drug trials, data mining and analysis, these applications would enable pharma companies to reduce the cycle time of drug discovery and approval from agencies such as U.S. FDA . Interestingly, a recent development wherein the U.S. FDA now allows electronic filing of data for drug approval, is expected to open more opportunities to healthcare IT firms (with applications like web-based reporting and data management).

During the announcements of Wipro's financial results, WHL's expected revenues for the third quarter ended December 30, 2002 was projected at $3.5 million. With an ambitious road-map of being more than a healthcare BPO firm, WHL is revving up to be among the top three global healthcare and life sciences companies.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business