Cepheid, a US-based molecular diagnostics company on Tuesday opened their first manufacturing unit in India in Bengaluru.

The 77,000 square-foot facility will manufacture the company’s leading Xpert tuberculosis testing cartridges for India and other countries.

The Cepheid manufacturing project was initiated in 2018 to support the Indian market. The local manufacturing of components will make Cepheid’s MTB (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) kits more accessible while strengthening the broader molecular diagnostics production capabilities in the country.

Cepheid has almost 50,000 GeneXpert systems installed globally, including 35 states and union territories in India.

The Cepheid GeneXpert system and Xpert test cartridges are portable, simple to operate, fast and highly reliable machines to diagnose TB.