Leads in microbio culture media production

HiMedia is showing continuous growth in the reagents sector and this has helped it reach revenue worth `56.25 crore in this fiscal

HiMedia Laboratories is considered to be amongst the few companies in India to possess high-technology know-how for manufacturing of microbiological culture media. During the fiscal year 2010-11, the company clocked an estimated biotech revenue of `56.25 crore when compared with `45 crore in the previous year.

HiMedia produces HiVeg Peptones (hydrolysates prepared from non-animal sources, such as wheat, corn and soy), which are manufactured by its sister company, Warkem Biotech. The manufacturing plant had recently been overhauled in order to meet global needs, particularly with the increasing demand for non-animal protein hydrolysates. This apart, the company launched comprehensive and easy-to-perform kits for soil and water analysis for farmers and agriculturists. The company also launched kits for testing adulteration in milk and detection of arsenic in water, a  kit to detect mastitis in cows (in collaboration with Shree Chitra Tirunal Institute, Kerala) and cost-effective kits for detection of sickle cell anemia (screening as well as confirmation).
HiMedia also made an entry into the stem cell and primary cell markets wherein cells and media are made available to scientists at an affordable cost. Scaling up of production of stem cells, primary cells and their media is on the cards. Presently these are being imported and by 2011 the company is looking  to make these available in India.

HiMedia is a partner in supplying culture media to the National Biodiversity Screening Program, which was introduced two years ago by the Department of Biotechnology, to screen the rich and diverse flora and fauna in India. During the outbreak of the H1N1 pandemic, HiMedia launched the  swine flu transport kit. These kits were manufactured at the company’s Nasik facility. For this particular kit, the company acquired six new biosafety level type 2 cabinets, and bought appropriate filtration equipments.