Sigma-Aldrich, a leading life sciences and high technology company headquartered in the US, recently opened new facilities in Wuxi, China, and Bangalore, India. The move is in keeping with the company's increasing focus on high-growth emerging markets of the Asia Pacific region.
The launch of new facility in India marks the completion of the company's 20 years in the country. The company total strength in the country is 250, including 45 scientists, and provides a range of products for molecular biology, protein expression and Proterozoic, cell biology, functional genomics and transgenic, in the life sciences area. It also has close to 100 distributors.

Sigma-Aldrich's facility at Wuxi will provide localized packaging, analytical services and quality control for high quality products to support its research and industrial customers in the region. The facility sits on approximately 20 acres of land and includes a dedicated quality control center, a state-of-the-art analytical application laboratory and packaging building. The Wuxi campus provides a platform for future expansion of products and services in the region.

In an interaction with BioSpectrum, Mr Rakesh Sachdev, president and CEO, Sigma-Aldrich, US, shares some thoughts on market opportunities and growth in the Asia Pacific region.

How do you see the growth of Sigma-Aldrich in Asia Pacific?

Mr Sachdev: India and China have been a growth region for us for some time now. Probably, it has even accelerated in the last two years. For the last three to four years, we have been growing at low double digit rates in the whole Asia Pacific and Latin America.