2026-09-08

Precision medicine is redefining healthcare by enabling faster, more accurate and personalised treatment strategies. Harkaran Dhingra, CEO, DSS Takara Bio India, shares with Pharma Industrial India, insights on India’s precision medicine landscape, the expanding use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), gene editing, RNA therapeutics, single-cell technologies, local manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, and the collaborations accelerating research and clinical innovation.

Q. Precision medicine is rapidly reshaping healthcare globally. How do you see its adoption evolving in India over the next 5 years?

Harkaran Dhingra: India is at an important inflection point. Over the next 5 years, precision medicine will move steadily from research-focused work in a few Centers of Excellence (CoEs) into wider translational and clinical use, particularly in oncology, rare and inherited disorders, infectious disease management and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Adoption will be driven by 3 practical enablers that are already visible today. First, molecular biology, genomics and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) workflows which are becoming more robust and reproducible; second, in-country manufacturing of critical reagents and enzymes is reducing dependence on imports and improving affordability, a shift very much aligned with the ‘Make in India’ vision; third, Indian researchers, hospitals and diagnostic laboratories are increasingly equipped with the workflows and supply chains they need to run these assays reliably at scale.

At DSS Takara Bio India, we see our role as supporting this adoption curve directly, through locally manufactured PCR enzymes, master mixes and nucleic acid extraction kits; through our NGS, single-cell and gene editing portfolios; and through a nationwide technical and cold-chain support network that ensures researchers and diagnostic labs across the country can work with confidence.

Q. Which areas of precision medicine is DSS Takara currently prioritising, and how do these align with the evolving needs of researchers and clinicians?

Harkaran Dhingra: Our current priorities are closely aligned with the evolving needs of translational research and molecular diagnostics in India. We are strengthening our portfolio of molecular biology and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) reagents, including PCR enzymes, master mixes and custom-dispensed products manufactured in India, while expanding our focus on lyophilised PCR master mixes for diagnostic applications. We are also advancing nucleic acid extraction solutions with locally manufactured kits designed to meet the requirements of both research institutions and molecular diagnostic laboratories.

In addition, we are supporting NGS workflows through Takara Bio’s library preparation solutions and related chemistries, enabling applications in oncology profiling, infectious disease research and translational genomics. Our portfolio further includes single-cell analysis technologies that help researchers better understand cellular heterogeneity, as well as gene-editing tools and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-based workflows available through our Takara, Clontech and Cellartis product lines. Complementing these offerings are our partner portfolios, including Macherey-Nagel for sample preparation, PromoCell for primary cells and cell culture and TriLink for advanced RNA and modified nucleic acid reagents, allowing us to provide comprehensive solutions across the life sciences research ecosystem.

This alignment is deliberate. Clinicians and diagnostic labs need reagents that are consistent, reliably supplied and cost-appropriate for Indian settings. Researchers need access to the same high-performance chemistries their global peers use. By combining Takara Bio’s global portfolio with in-country manufacturing at Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and pan-India technical support, we are addressing both requirements together.

Q. What are the key scientific and technological advancements that are making precision medicine more accessible and effective today?

Harkaran Dhingra: Several advancements, many of which are already reflected in our own portfolio and manufacturing capabilities, are making precision medicine more accessible in India.

Our focus is on delivering advanced technologies that strengthen molecular diagnostics and life sciences research across India. This includes robust PCR and qPCR chemistries, featuring lyophilised master mix formats that enable reliable, high-throughput testing in both centralised and decentralised laboratory settings. We also support NGS workflows that help researchers translate genetic data into actionable insights across oncology, infectious diseases and inherited disorders.

Additionally, our portfolio includes single-cell analysis solutions that allow scientists to study disease biology at cellular resolution, offering significant value in oncology and immunology research. We provide CRISPR and other gene-editing technologies that have become integral to functional genomics, disease modelling and cell and gene therapy research in India. Complementing these capabilities are high-quality nucleic acid extraction solutions, which form the foundation of accurate molecular testing, along with locally manufactured critical enzymes and reagents that reduce lead times, strengthen supply security and make advanced molecular technologies more accessible and cost-effective for research institutions and diagnostic laboratories across the country.

Individually, each of these is important. Together, they are turning precision medicine from a specialised capability into an everyday research and diagnostic tool for Indian scientists and clinicians.

Q. How can precision medicine improve outcomes for patients with rare and inherited diseases?

Harkaran Dhingra: Rare and inherited diseases are an area where precision medicine has particularly strong impact, because the underlying cause is often a definable molecular defect that can be identified through the right combination of sample preparation, PCR and sequencing workflows.

Accurate molecular characterisation, using high-quality nucleic acid extraction, PCR and NGS-based approaches, can shorten what has historically been a long and difficult diagnostic journey, particularly for pediatric patients. Reliable genotyping and carrier testing support informed clinical decisions and family counselling and consistent performance of the underlying reagents is essential for those decisions to be trusted. Once a diagnosis is established, molecular tools continue to play a role in monitoring disease, guiding therapy selection and supporting biomarker-defined research studies and clinical trials. This is where our portfolio contributes: locally manufactured PCR reagents and extraction kits for routine testing, NGS chemistries for deeper genomic characterisation and single-cell and CRISPR tools that support the research needed to understand and eventually address these disorders.

For India specifically, where certain inherited conditions occur at higher frequencies due to population structure, the availability of high-quality, locally supplied and locally supported reagents is critical. It is what allows Indian institutions to build in-country expertise rather than depending on tests sent abroad.

Q. How does DSS Takara collaborate with pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and healthcare providers to accelerate precision medicine initiatives?

Harkaran Dhingra: Our collaborations are built around 3 complementary roles: technology enabler, manufacturing partner and scientific collaborator. With academic and research institutions, including CSIR-IGIB, AIIMS, IISc, THSTI, ICMR institutes, several IITs, BRIC-NIBMG, and leading hospitals, we provide access to Takara Bio’s NGS, single-cell, gene editing and molecular biology portfolios, along with technical training and application support. Takara Bio technologies have been cited in publications from over 30 leading Indian institutions across oncology, infectious disease, CRISPR, diagnostics, AMR, and precision medicine, which reflects the depth of these long-standing relationships.

With pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies, we work as a manufacturing and supply partner, offering PCR enzymes, master mixes, custom formulations and custom dispensing manufactured at our Indian facility. Our ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certifications allow us to serve customers whose downstream applications require quality-managed and IVD-grade raw materials. With diagnostic laboratories and healthcare providers, our focus is on reliable supply and hands-on technical support. During COVID-19, DTI supplied over 5 million PCR reactions’ worth of master mixes and custom products to Indian diagnostic companies, maintaining lead times of just 2 to 3 weeks through the peak of the pandemic. That same operational agility is now being applied to
routine molecular diagnostics, oncology, and AMR workflows.

Underpinning all of this is our validated cold-chain network with pan-India reach and a strong local applications team, because in precision medicine, timely reagent supply and on-the
ground scientific support are as important as the technology itself.

Q. What innovations do you believe will define the next phase of precision medicine?

Harkaran Dhingra: The next phase of precision medicine will be driven not by a single breakthrough, but by the broader adoption and accessibility of proven technologies at scale across India. A key area of growth will be the expanded clinical use of NGS for applications such as oncology profiling, inherited disease diagnosis, infectious disease characterisation and AMR surveillance. At the same time, single-cell and spatial biology are expected to evolve beyond research settings into translational and clinical applications, providing deeper insights into disease mechanisms at the cellular level.

Advancements in gene editing, cell and gene therapy and RNA therapeutics will also play a pivotal role, supported by robust CRISPR workflows, viral vector production technologies, stem cell platforms and high-quality reagents for RNA synthesis, modification and analysis. Equally important will be the increasing adoption of lyophilised, ready-to-use molecular diagnostic solutions that simplify laboratory workflows, improve shelf life and enable decentralised testing. Strengthening local manufacturing of critical enzymes, reagents and diagnostic kits will further enhance supply chain resilience, improve affordability and reinforce India’s self-reliance ambitions under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Our own role in this next phase is clear. We will continue to expand local manufacturing of critical reagents and enzymes at DTI, deepen our NGS, single-cell, gene editing and RNA-related offerings and work closely with researchers, clinicians and industry partners, so that precision medicine reaches Indian patients at Indian scale, supported by science and manufacturing carried out here in India.