[dropcap]C[/dropcap]erba HealthCare, a leading player in the field of clinical pathology in Europe, is establishing itself in Africa to develop Cerba Lancet Africa, a network of labs in partnership with Lancet Laboratories, South Africa’s leader in clinical pathology.
Cerba HealthCare has long been present in Africa and has developed two main programmes.
For over 30 years it has worked with medical communities in numerous African countries, providing
daily specialised clinical pathology and pathological anatomy and cytology services.
Cerba has mastered the logistics of pathological sampling and has effective digital tools at its disposal, enabling
it to conduct more than 600,000 pathology tests each year for healthcare professionals in more than
15 African countries, delivering the majority of results within 48 hours.
Cerba HealthCare has also been working with Lancet Laboratories for over 20 years, running clinical
trials in Africa through a company called Barc RSA, which is based in Johannesburg.
Building on its past experience and this partnership of experts, convinced of the needs and potential
to expand clinical pathology in Africa and its capacity to deploy a quality service to the medical
community, Cerba HealthCare has decided to invest substantially to build a local network of clinical
pathology laboratories on the African continent.
Cerba HealthCare is announcing a joint-venture with its long-standing partner, Lancet Laboratories, in
11 African countries outside South Africa.
With its network of more than 100 ISO-accredited laboratories and over 1,400 employees serving more
than 1.3 million patients a year, and generating over €40 million in turnover in 2018, Cerba Lancet
Africa is now the leading force in local clinical pathology in Africa.
The complementarity of our medical expertise, sound knowledge of the medical communities in the
different countries and deployment of large industrial facilities, both partners aspire to become leading
players in Africa.
“We are very excited about working closely with Lancet and its teams. Our common goal is to develop
medical services in regions where we are already present and to expand into other countries. Alongside
our partner Lancet Laboratories, we are also planning an ambitious investment programme to offer
innovative services in clinical pathology that meet the needs of patients, health professionals and
healthcare organisations, alongside businesses across the continent”, states Jérôme Thill, Deputy Chief
Executive Officer of Cerba HealthCare.
Peter Cole, CEO of Lancet Laboratories comments: “The broad expertise of both our groups, Cerba
HealthCare, a leader in clinical pathology in Europe, and Lancet, a leader in clinical pathology in South
Africa, coupled with our respective knowledge of the African continent across very different and
complementary territories, will be real strengths for our joint venture. We are delighted to partner
with Cerba HealthCare and are looking forward to expanding our efforts together and working to
improve the health of African citizens”.