Debojyoti Dhar is known as India’s Microbiome Man. He has completed his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science in the field of Molecular Biology. He has patents for Intestinal microbial health markers based on intestinal microbial profiling and Guts microbial-based profiling for disease susceptibility assessment and personalized nutritional recommendation. 

Kumar Sankaran is a business leader in the domain of Healthcare Research and Delivery experience. He has studied Biotechnology at Bangalore University. With Leucine Rich Bio he is spearheading the growth and innovation in the field of Microbiome for the Asian market.

Leucine Rich Bio has won the award for Microbiome Diagnostic from Frost & Sullivan in 2014. The same year they also received the Super Startup Asia Award.

South Asia’s first Microbiome Company - Leucine Rich Bio and its offerings

Kumar Sankaran says, “We value preventative healthcare. We started this as a microbiome company way back even before microbiome was common knowledge. We have many offerings in the microbiome- 

1. Gut microbiome test kit
2. Rich microbiome which is a line of probiotics and prebiotics.”

USP of Leucine Rich Bio

Debojyoti Dhar informs, “We are the 1st company to bring this science from the bench to the bedside. We want to bring advancements of the microbiome to the end-users. We have one of the world’s best-curated databases where we all have the information of micro-organisms related to many diseases. We have tools and another database called nutribyte where all the nutritional information is curated. We have algorithms and matrices which are patented. All of them help us bring South Asia, First Gut Microbion Test into existence. South Asia’s first microbiome product is called Rich Biome Indus. With the base that we have, we are planning to a lot many things and bring it to the masses.”

Kumar Sankaran informs, “We are now sitting on largest India Microbiome Data. This is giving us interesting insights into how we are different from the rest of the microbiome data around the world. How are geography and food habits are different from the rest of the world? Our habits are shaping our microbiome. We have a large reference database for the microbiome. This is bringing about the accuracy level to a high extent.”

Facts

The pandemic has created a wake-up call, putting the spotlight on the need to take charge of one’s health. Preventive care aims to avert predominantly lifestyle-oriented diseases. A  report claims that in 2019, preventive healthcare accounted for a meager 11% of India's overall healthcare expenditure. But this sector is on the rise specifically in urban and semi-urban areas. It is estimated to be around $106 billion by 2022.

Operational areas 

Kumar Sankaran, “We are operating in both urban and semi-urban areas with a focus on preventative healthcare. People want to catch the disease very early on. Putting the effort to change nutrition with diet and lifestyle is important. People are willing to change health through nutrition.”

Funds raised and utilization

Kumar Sankaran, “We raised funds right back in 2017 and seen a lot of difference in our R&D work to fulfill the vision we have. In our journey, we have met some interesting investors to back up with our R&D. Mass Challenge Switzerland gave an exposure to the European market and the pharma and nutraceutical industry. We hope to build collaborations and products with the European market.”

Revenue for FY 2022 

Debojyoti Dhar states, “This year we are planning close at 2 crores Indian rupees. Last year, we were at 75 to 80 lacs roughly. We are in the domain which is nascent and covid was all around. We are doing a lot of things that will boost our revenue and hopefully adding novel solutions is one of them” 

How is Covid Impacted Leucine Bio Rich?

Debojyoti Dhar states, “Ayurveda gives emphasizes on gut health. Prakriti and Agni dosha are very important for gut healthy. People have realized during covid and post covid that immunity is very important to fight the pathogen. SARS CoV-2 is just one of them. 70 % of the immunity resides in the gut. In the digital age, people are looking at immunity and gut health. Once the first wave receded, there were many queries on our site which was a big hit. The type of hits rose up post covid. Covid has helped people realize immunity and gut health is the primary factor.”

Goals for Leucine Rich Bio to achieve in the year 2022

Debojyoti Dhar states, “We are doing a lot of clinical trials. Clinical trials are the golden yardstick of the products, especially in the healthcare domain. Also, we are going to come up with Nutraceutical products based on microbiome data. One of our main focus areas is therapeutics and we will be collaborating with various companies on novel therapeutics. 

Kumar Sankaran informs,” For the consumers, we are bringing about this entire experience of gut microbiome more accessible. We hope that we can change a person’s life by changing their food habits and we have seen a lot of success in it. 

Oral and Skin Microbiome 

Kumar Sankaran informs,” We have the products ready and haven't launched yet. For the oral microbiome, we are collaborating with hospitals. From both clinical and consumer perspectives, we will out with products for oral and skin microbiome.”

(Edited by Dr.Rati Parwani)