The Hindu Business Line : Tata Group to foray into pharma research

Having exited the manufacturing and marketing segment of the pharmaceutical industry a few years ago, the Tata Group is entering the drug discovery and pre-clinical trial segment.

It is setting up a new company, Advinus Therapeutics and has chosen Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, pharma scientist to head it. Dr Barbhaiya's last stint was in Ranbaxy.

The Tata Group will be transferring the knowledge services business of Rallis India Ltd to Advinus Therapeutics for a consideration of Rs 26 crore. Rallis is one of the Tata Group companies, which will have a strategic stake in Advinus, said Mr Homi Khusrokhan, Director, Rallis India. He said details of the company's structure would be disclosed later to the media.

Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons, in recent media interviews, had said that the Tata Group has an interest in making a foray into the drug research aspect of the pharmaceutical industry.

"Drug discovery and contract research is a new business area for the Tata Group,'' Mr Khusrokhan said.

Explaining the rationale for Tata Group's foray into this business, Mr Khusrokhan said there is a huge need for outsourcing drug development. While drug discovery is taking place rapidly, drug development is lagging behind. Drug development, which took about nine five years, now takes on an average 14 years because of the sensitivity over drug safety.

The Tata Group is poised to take on drug discovery and pre-clinical research primarily because of the advantageous position of India as a country in this aspect of business. The recent adoption of patent law, low costs, efficient operations, high quality of work are the factors that work to India's advantage in pharmaceutical research, he said.

Globally, there has been an exponential growth in research and development (R&D) spend. In 1990, global R&D spend stood at $ 20 billion, in 2002 it touched $ 50 billion and now is estimated at around $ 65 billion.

The Tata Group would be involved in phase-I trials, pre-clinical trials, candidate selection and drug discovery. The Rallis Research Centre, according to Mr Khusrokhan, is situated in an ideal environment in Bangalore along with India's knowledge industry. The research centre has a GLP accreditation for its toxicology laboratory and has 85 trained scientific personnel. In its earlier presence in the pharmaceutical industry, the Tata Group was in manufacture and marketing and sales through Merind, and pharma business in Rallis. Merind was sold to Wockhardt, while Rallis pharma business was sold to Shreya.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Tata Group to foray into pharma research

SAIL's Raw Material Division to raise production

Division of assets: Ambanis to resume talks after May 21

ONGC gets corporate governance award

ICAI seminar on WTO issues in Hyderabad

Haldia Petro's debt recast, Basell investment cleared

Posco keen on setting up steel plant in Orissa

GAIL-IOC in pact for gas supply in Lucknow, Agra

Hyundai India to launch redesigned Sonata soon

Eastern Silk hopes to complete merger process shortly