Premium International invests Rs 25 m on research laboratory

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Premium International will invest Rs 25 million to set up the first ever research laboratory for bio medical technologies in Sri Lanka saving a huge amount of foreign exchange to the country. An agreement was signed by Premium International COO Nigel Forbes and Vice Chancellor Moratuwa University Prof Ananada Jayawardena at Taj Samudra Hotel on Friday.

Forbes said the collaborations and investment into this research laboratory from product development to commercialization is “a research bench -to-bedside translation,” and the future investment will be allocated based on research progress. He said the company will develop instrumentation and technologies that can be commercialized to the market providing a large number of job opportunities as well.

Speaking at the signing ceremony Vice Chancellor Moratuwa University Prof Ananada Jayawardena said there was no assurance for the medical doctors that their innovative product ideas can be taken right up to the commercial level. But with this lab, that assurance can be given.

He said another important objective of the lab is to develop higher quality import substitutes for fast moving medical electronics related products.

The list of initial set of products includes ECG monitors, pulse oxymeters, mlti-parameter patient monitors, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices and photo-therapy units. These are all fast moving items which are required in every hospital.

Initial focus is on medical products which involve significant amount of electronics and it is expected to provide a big boost to local electronic manufacturing sector by manufacturing the products locally. At present there is not a single electronic product in local market.