The Hindu Business Line : Life Sciences Alliance to organise meet in Goa

LIFE Sciences Alliance, a private alliance of three Indian and a US-based pharmaceutical companies, has announced that it is going to organise the first global symposium in Goa to offer an opportunity to the global pharmaceutical industry to discuss trends and challenges in both the emerging as well as evolved pharmaceutical markets.

The alliance was formed last year between the US-based Austin Chemical Company Inc and three Indian companies — Suven Life Sciences, Shasun Chemicals and Drugs and Innovasynth Technologies.

According to the Suven Managing Director, Mr Venkat Jasti, the purpose of the alliance is to integrate capabilities and synergies of pharmaceutical companies from the US and India to help globalise pharmaceutical drug development process.

"The symposium provides a platform to share perspectives from global industry experts on the complexity of globalisation of the pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing processes," he said.

Experts from across the globe in the fields of academia, industry and regulatory bodies would provide participants a perspective of the current trends and challenges facing today's global pharmaceutical industry. According to Mr Jasti, participants from the emerging markets provide a perspective of their capabilities and innovation as South Asia and South East Asia emerge as a force in the realignment of the pharmaceutical industry.

Stating that the global pharmaceutical companies were looking at India for outsourcing research and development services, the Innovasynth CEO and President, Dr B. Sahu, said the multi-billion opportunities for the Indian companies would enable the global pharmaceutical industry to substantially bring down the cost of research and development as well as the time to reach the market.

Speaking from the US through video conferencing mode, the Austin Chemical Vice President, Global Development, Mr Sri Mosur, said his company has already entered into a joint venture arrangement with Shasun Chemicals and is open to additional opportunities through Life Sciences Alliance.