Roll No.

: 190103155

Promotion of Malaria Rapid Test Kits – CareStart

Malaria Kits

At

Microgene Diagnostic Systems P. Ltd

Submitted

By

Sushant Ahuja

190103155

IMT GHAZIABAD

July, 2020
 Promotion of Malaria Rapid Test Kits – CareStart

Malaria Kits

At

Microgene Diagnostic Systems P. Ltd

Submitted

By

Sushant Ahuja

190103155

Under the guidance of

Mr. Jyoti Bhasin Prof. Rachita Gupta

Division Head - Diagnostics
Microgene Diagnostic systems IMT, Ghaziabad

July, 2020

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 Certificate of Approval

The following Summer Project Report titled " Promotion of Malaria Rapid Test Kits at
Microgene Diagnostic Systems pvt. Ltd." is hereby approved as a certified study in
management carried out and presented in a manner satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as a
prerequisite for the award of Post-Graduate Diploma in Management for which it has
been submitted. It is understood that by this approval, the undersigned do not necessarily
endorse or approve any statement made, opinion expressed or conclusion drawn therein but
approve the Summer Project Report only for the purpose it is submitted.

Summer Project Report Examination Committee for evaluation of Summer Project

Report

Faculty mentor Name

Prof. Rachita Gupta Signature

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 Certificate from Summer Project Guide

This is to certify that Mr. Sushant Ahuja (Roll Number 271043) has completed her summer

internship at Microgene Diagnostic Systems Pvt. Ltd. and has submitted this project report

entitled Promotion of Malaria Rapid Test Kits towards partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management.

This Report is the result of her own work and to the best of my knowledge, no part of it has

earlier comprised any other report, monograph, dissertation or book. This project was carried

out under my overall supervision.

Date:

Place:

————————————-

Internal Faculty Guide

Prof. Rachita Gupta

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 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my industry mentors Mr. Jyoti Bhasin,

Ms. Rimmi Bhatia, Mr. Nazim Ansari at Microgene Diagnostic Systems Pvt. Ltd. for me

giving me ample learning opportunities that would greatly benefit me in my future endeavors.

The project was very challenging in terms of the detailed understanding of the industry that

had to be developed to be able to deliver it successfully. This work would not have been

possible without the support provided by all the members of the Microgene family.

I would like to thank my faculty guide, Prof. Rachita Gupta, for providing me unconditional

support all throughout the project. It would not have been easy to bridge the gap between the

industry and the academia without her guidance.

Thank You.

Yours Truly

Sushant Ahuja

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 Abstract

I interned in this healthcare company to promote the malaria rapid test kit – CareStart Malaria
in various hospitals across Delhi NCR. Other objectives include analysing the competition in
the market and thereby laying down a basis for the product when the monsoon season hits. 
In this report we try to create a picture how the promotion was done by means of visiting the
laboratories, blood banks and path labs and how it is expected to increase the sales by
promoting the product differently that is by putting on a lot more focus on rapid test kits and
not focusing on all the products.
The scope of the above study is hospitals, blood banks and laboratories in Delhi NCR. Since
only these places do rapid tests of malaria.   
 This study was done for a time period of four weeks and 48 institutions were visited
personally to collect primary data and secondary data was collected using the internet
These were really challenging times because although the business deals with
medical devices and In-vitro Diagnostic products(being considered as an essential
business) , it was difficult to promote offline sales in Covid crisis, similarly most of
the consumers aren’t also willing to go to clinics or hospitals. Hence leading to
huge loss in sale numbers.

Key Deliverables of the internship project

 To develop an understanding of the product offered by Microgene Diagnostic

Systems Pvt. Ltd.
 To carry out a competitor analysis
 To examine the promotion of malaria rapid test kits
 To assess the market penetration
 To carry out a promotion exercise

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 Table of Contents

Page
Acknowledgement 5
Abstract 6
Table of Contents 7
I Introduction
1.1 About the Company’s Diagnostics Division 8
1.2 Managerial Problem 8
1.3 purpose of the Project 8
II Literature Review
2..1 Gaps in literature review 11
III Methodology
3.1 Locale and sample size of the study 13
3.2 Data collection.
3.3 Data Intrepretation
IV Company analysis
4.1 competitors 14
4.2 SWOT analysis of company & competitors 16
V Analysis & Finding 16
VI Results & Discussions 17
VII Conclusion 18
VIII Suggestions & Recommendations 18

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I Introduction

1.1 About Microgene’s Diagnostic Division

Microgene Diagnostic Systems (P) Ltd. is an eleven years old ISO 9001:2015 certified
organization specializing in different aspects of healthcare. Their core focus is in the field of 
Medical Devices, Diagnostics, Blood Banking and POCT. A truly national organization with
head office at New Delhi and branch offices at Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. It comprises a
team of more than 145 sales professionals located throughout the country, backed up by 45
back end staff at the Head Office. They have an established distribution network of more
than 600 distributors covering practically every state of India. With annual turnover of approx
$13Million.Their registered brand "AccuSure" is well recognized and accepted in the Indian
market.

Joining Date - 05th May 2020

End Date- 05th July 2020

1.2 Managerial Problem

Monsoon season usually serves as the breeding time for malaria and many cases of malaria
occur during the months of June, July, August and September with a lasting effect on
October. The company strategically planned to promote its rapid test kits of malaria in
the pre-monsoon season. Diagnostic industry being a slow one needs an early action and thus
the company planned to do the same.
The company has a very powerful product with it that is malaria rapid test kits as it is
preapproved by WHO and has performed extremely well in all of WHO test reports. Still the
company was having trouble in generating high sales. This was found to be a result of huge
product portfolio leaving the sales person with lack of focus on the powerful product.

1.3 Purpose of the Project

The aim of this project is to evaluate the promotion strategies adopted and competition
analysis to be performed to support the promotion of the malaria rapid test kit. Many of us
have limited knowledge when it comes to the diagnostic field. Reason being that only
personnel of the medical/scientific industry take enough effort to enter this field as this field
is highly scientific and logic based. Hence corporates have a tough time finding the right
person.
I being from a science background was picked up to promote the diagnostic product and
perform a competition analysis so that when the monsoon season hits that is when the malaria

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is on high toll the company can be ready and well equipped to provide the kits to the hospitals
, increase sales by providing to new hospitals
In the past there has never been any study on the promotion Malaria Rapid Test Kits by
Microgene Diagnostic Systems Pvt. Ltd. Hence this as the primary purpose of the study
Even then the sales of rapid test kits were low compared to competitors even when the price
was either cheaper or comparable. This was due to lack of focus on the product. Hence
management planned to have separate promotion of this product.
The report will deal with promotion strategies adopted the company and thus competition
analysis done for the product in order to lay down a basis for the product / increase sales and
capture more hospitals for the product.
Malaria being one of the most prevalent diseases of India is being tested in a number of ways
in laboratories with rapid tests being the fastest ways which is followed by testing under the
microscope which is the gold standard for testing

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II Literature Review

WHO recommends that malaria case management be based on parasite diagnosis in all cases.
The use of antigen- detecting rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) is a vital part of this strategy,
forming the basis for extending access to malaria diagnosis by providing parasite-based
diagnosis in areas where good-quality microscopy cannot be maintained.
The number of RDTs available and the scale of their use have increased rapidly over the past
few years; however, limitations of field trials and the heterogeneous nature of malaria
transmission have limited the availability of the good-quality data on performance that
national malaria programmes require to make informed decisions on procurement and
implementation, and it is difficult to extrapolate the results of field trials to different
populations and times. Therefore, in 2006, the WHO Special Programme for Research and
Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics
(FIND) launched a programme to systematically evaluate and compare the performance of
commercially available malaria RDTs.
RDT sales increased from 46 million sold in 2008 (before implementation of the product testing
programme) to 314 million in 2014 (according to manufacturer sales data),

The following summary presents an overview of the results of rounds 3–6 of malaria RDT
product testing and key concepts for understanding and using the results.

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2.1 Gaps in Literature Review

By the analysis of sales strategy of the sales person it was observed that salesperson have a
lot to offer from a bucket of products when they approach any laboratory or hospital

The management found that due to a huge product portfolio there was a decreased / very little
focus on the malaria rapid test kits. The company has a world class product which is
preapproved by WHO for diagnostic rapid test for malaria. With such a good quality product
which by the reports of WHO is not just best in its detection of malaria but also best in early
detection of malaria.

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III Methodology

The project had multiple objectives:

 To develop an understanding of the product offered by Microgene Diagnostic

Systems Pvt. Ltd.
 To carry out a competitors analysis
 To examine the promotion of malaria rapid test kits
 To assess the market penetration

To carry out this promotion exercise

This required visiting to laboratories, blood banks and hospitals and putting forward the
product to a number of people.

 When the meetings were held with Medical Superintendent features of the product
alongside price were being focussed upon
 When meetings were with lab technician then kits were run simultaneously with
positive samples of malaria at different dilution levels in order to show the early
detection of the product
 When meeting were held with purchase manager of the lab / hospital / blood bank
then negotiation of price was done
In all of the cases the WHO report was mailed , a hard copy was given , the great
performance of the product was being highlighted upon again and again in order to lay stress
on the phenomenal performance of the product

Simultaneously all of these people were interviewed in an unstructured way in order to gain
knowledge of competitive product , per month requirement of the lab , price they were
getting the product currently.
The Covid crisis posed huge challenges especially visiting these institutions , since most of
them turned as covid facilities and wanted to buy only covid-related products.Nevertheless
we had to prepare ourselves for monsoon season as well with normally witnesses a surge of
malaria cases across the country,

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3.1 Locale and Sample size of study:

Delhi NCR region was divided in 5 parts namely south, east, west, north and central and 2
parts that is north and west delhi were covered during the internship period where in 55
hospitals , blood banks attached to the hospitals and many laboratories in the region were
personally visited.
These institutions can be divided into big scale, medium scale and small scale institutions
The company actively supplies its product in many of the big scale institutions
Thus, there was focus on medium scale institutions alongside big scale institutions
Majority of the institutions visited belonged to these categories only.

3.2 Data collection:

Data was collected by an unstructured interview which was done when there was a meeting with any
of lab staff, lab technician, blood bank staff or purchase manager at hospitals and information was
also gathered from Medical Superintendent

Information was gathered on the lines of

 Which product they were already using

 What was the price at which they were being supplied
 Were they satisfied with the results
 How many cases of false positive were there
 How many cases of false negative were there
 For how long had they been using the product
 Who was their preferred supplier
 Have they ever tested on CareStart malaria rapid test kits
 If yes then how was their experience
Secondary data was collected by internet where knowledge about the institution was gained and their
capacity was estimated accordingly

3.3 Data Intrepretation:

After getting the data a strategy was formalised that of all the competitors that is J Mitra kits ,
Transasia kits , Advy kits , SD kits WHO report was used and the performance of these company
(which was extremely poor ) was highlighted.

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IV Company Analysis

The diagnostics industry involves testing patients to detect disease. In vitro diagnostics (IVD)
and biotech diagnostics refer to testing samples of blood, tissue, for example
electrocardiography or biopsy for cancer diagnostics. Generally in order to sell any IVD
product in India the company need to get import license or a manufacturing license which is
of 4 types namely type A, B, C and D with type A being low risk products and type D being
high risk products from Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO)

Parent Company MICROGENE

DAGNOSTIC
SYSTEMS P. LTD
Sector Medical Equipment
Industry
Segment Domestic Market (PAN
India)

Tagline/ Slogan Commitment To Life

Target Group Hospitals, Laboratories,

Blood Banks

4.1 Competitors

Competitors 1. J mitra
2. TransAsia
3. Oscar
4. Advy
5. Tulip
6. SD
7. Avantor

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4.2 SWOT Analysis of the company

STRENGTHS  Being a trading company it can maneuver easily into different areas of
the industry
 For most of the products they have exclusivity rights
 Strong network across the country
 Able work force which is educated and hence highly motivated
 Presence in 3 areas of the medical industry namely health care ,
diagnostic (in vitro) and orthopedic devices
WEAKNESSES  Due to presence in 3 areas of the medical industry huge amount of cash
flow goes into inventory management
 Business is strongly affected by exchange rate
 Business is highly regulated by FDA India
 A lot of planning goes into planning and importing the products

OPPORTUNITIES  Can setup manufacturing facility and reduce costs

 Can venture into new areas of the medical industry

THREATS  Threat from new entrants

 Threat from illegal suppliers of the products (without proper licenses)

4.3SWOT Analysis of the competitors

STRENGTHS  Brand recall

 Price effectiveness
 Market penetration
WEAKNESSES  Low quality product
 Low focus to keep the product stable
OPPORTUNITIES  Improve the product
 Set up bigger facilities

THREATS  Threat from new entrants

 Threat from illegal suppliers of the products
(without proper licenses)

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V Analysis

5.1 Number of Institutions Visited

Number of Institutions
visited Number of
Type of institution institution visited
15 15
25 Hospitals 15

Laboratories 25
Hospitals Laboratories
blood banks 15
blood banks

5.2 Responses Received

Response
Response Received Received

7
Number of Institutions Responded 55
Number of Institutions did not
55 Respond 7

Number of Institutions Responded

Number of Institutions did not Respond

number of institution
8 Type of institution number of institution
15
Big Scale 15

Medium Scale 25
25
Small scale 8
Big Scale Medium Scale
Small scale

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5.3 Existence of our Malaria Rapid Test Kit in the institution

No. of
No. of institutions
institutions
6 CareStart Malaria
13 (Microgene) 6
Advantage Malaria
17 Card (J Mitra) 17
12
SD Bioline (SD) 12

CareStart Malaria (Microgene) Advantage Malaria Card (J Mitra) Others 13

SD Bioline (SD) Others

VI Results and Discussion

 Major market share of the Malaria Rapid Test Kits is being held by J Mitra followed
by SD
 Many other players also exist in the market selling the product
 The competitors have a robust network and a good brand recall
 The WHO report works as a powerful weapon for the company as according to the
report CareStart Malaria is preapproved and has extremely high performance in
diagnosis of malaria at both 2000 parasites/L and 200 parasites/L
 In diagnostics the best product is the one which can detect a disease at an early stage.
Hence, if a product has good detection at 200 parasites/L then it is a better product
than the rest
 Many hospitals and laboratories were found to be interested in the product when the
products were run simultaneously with positive samples since CareStart Malaria
could detect faster and at higher dilution levels too

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VII Conclusions

 CareStart Malaria being a good quality product can replace many of the competitors if
the WHO report is used to explain the product properly
 Many of the competitors have performed poorly on the WHO report which can be
highlighted to replace the product
 Many hospitals were found to be going through NABL accreditation hence they will
take time in replacing the product
 CareStart Malaria performs much better when run simultaneously with the products of
hospitals , laboratories , blood banks
 Detection level of CareStart Malaria is very high which means it can detect the
presence of Malaria very early
 Competitors’ product can be eliminated or replaced if the WHO report is used
properly
 Many of the competitors are not even recognised by WHO hence it will be easier to
replace such competitors
 Many of the competitors have performed poorly in the WHO report hence they can be
replaced too by highlighting this fact

VIII Suggestions

 Persistence is the key to good sales and increase in revenue. In the diagnostic industry
people only lack persistence and hence fail.
 Intense follow-ups are required. In Diagnostics it takes a lot of time to replace a
product but once it is replaced it is as difficult for the competitor too to replace the
product and until then fruits will be reaped without having to think much about it.
 Distribution of free samples can help put forward the good quality of the product and
leave an ever lasting impact on the minds of user that is lab technician, blood bank
staff.
 The staff can lay emphasis on their supervisors about the quality of the product and
hence can help in generating sales. Since the job is mainly done by the staff it is at
times left up to their choice.
 The WHO report must be highlighted in an efficient manner in order to tackle
competitors
 Many competitors have performed poorly in the report and that can be highlighted to
replace the products
 Many competitors have not even been recognised by WHO and thus such competitors
are the easiest to replace, as highlighting only the fact that such labs are using an
unrecognised product shakes and moves the user and makes them more bent in taking
our product

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