Affordable point of care
diagnostics for TB
Despite the initial pulls and pushes for survival, the Pune based
startup, Annweshan SciTech has stayed strong to tell its tale behind its
quest to create an affordable solution for tuberculosis diagnosis
BY RAHUL KOUL
C
lose to two and half years
ago, a scientist decided to
turn into an entrepreneur
to work towards his
goal of developing a
game changing technology to
detect Tuberculosis. Behind
the motivation was the years of
research work on the deadly disease
by Dr Dhiman Sarkar, Senior
Principal Scientist, Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research’s
National Chemical Laboratory
(CSIR-NCL), Pune, who has 81
publications and 47 patents to his
credit.
The result of the initial intense
deliberations between him and his
co-founder, the lecturer turned
entrepreneur, Mrs Manikankana
Sarkar Bandyopadhyay led to the
formation of a startup, Annweshan
SciTech, on 13th January 2015.
It was followed by the immediate
steps towards developing the
prototype of the product based on
the years of research by Dr Sarkar.
One of the important aspects of
TB being so deadly is the large
number of “missed-out” cases
during testing, because of which
these suspected TB patients do
not receive timely treatment. The
founders also believe that a lack
of understanding between so-
called experts about the usefulness
of conventional methodologies
in evaluating any novel, game-
changing diagnostic technology has
been a drawback. To circumvent
this problem, Dr Sarkar discovered
a novel method of detection in the
year 2011. He tried it on suspected
TB patients, and encouraged, by
the preliminary results, decided
to setup Annweshan SciTech to
bring affordable TB diagnosis to the
common people.
Commenting on the need for
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