Indian Doctor Cashes In On COVID-19 Pandemic, Becomes A Billionaire

The net worth of Arvind Lal, the head of Dr Lal PathLabs, crosses $1 last week, driven by the increase in shares of the man’s diagnostics chain.

After receiving approval to run COVID-19 tests in March, Dr Lal PathLabs has done over 5,000 radiology and pathology tests. Before that, only government agencies were allowed to do COVID-19 tests, but as the number of cases skyrockets, private labs are involved in this endeavor.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the diagnostics chain of Dr Lal is among the largest in the industry in India, with over 2,500 patient service centers, 6,500 pick-up points, and 200 clinical labs.

70-year-old Arvind Lal, who holds 57% stakes of the chain, did not make it to Forbes World’s Billionaire list this year as shares of his company was down temporarily as a result of COVID-19-driven sell-off. However, as the clinic chain allowed to do tests for Coronavirus, the shares have since risen by 8%, bringing him a large fortune.

When Dr. Lal took over the family business founded by his father, he was only 28 years old. After graduating the Pune-based Armed Forces Medical College, he went back home in 1977 and added some new equipment for diagnostics.

Dr. Lal and his wife Vandana Lal, married in 1979, also introduced cytogenetics, genetics, and diagnostics tests to the chain.

Ever since taking over the business, Dr. Lal has been expanding the business across India, mainly through acquisition.

Dr. Lal is an honorary brigadier’s rank in the Medical Service arm of the Armed Force and he also authors a books called Corporate Yogi: My Journey as a Spiritual Seeker and an Accidental Entrepreneur, which has been translated to his native language, Hindi.

Archana Lal Erdmann, his daughter, is a geneticist and she is living and running her own diagnostics chain in California. Anjaneya Lal, his son, is in charge of the veterinary division of the company. He is also a wildlife photographer.

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