The Hindu Business Line : Avesthagen to invest Rs 45 crore more

BIOTECHNOLOGY company Avestha Gengraine Technologies has turned profitable and is making fresh investments of nearly Rs 45 crore to set up a new R&D facility and a nutraceuticals manufacturing unit in Bangalore, its Founder and CEO, Dr Villoo Morawala-Patell, said.

The expansion planned by late 2006 will be funded out of internal resources as "we have turned profitable now," Dr Morawala-Patell said.

Avesthagen has acquired 2 acres near the ITPL for its R&D expansion, leased a one-acre plot nearby for its Rs 5-crore nutraceuticals manufacturing unit and is shifting most of its offices to a new location within the ITPL.

With increased collaborative activities coming up in the short term based on traditional Indian medicines and herbs, Avesthagen is also doubling its staff strength to 300 in the next six months, Dr Morawala-Patell, told Business Line. An IPO has been in the offing for a while and a few developments expected in the near future would decide its time and amount.

Cardiovascular tie-up

On Saturday, Avesthagen signed an agreement with the Dutch R&D major TNO for its third joint venture. The new venture will focus on making nutraceuticals aimed at preventing cardiovascular diseases. Its activities will combine traditional Indian medicinal plant-based knowledge and modern genomics, the two companies said.

Avesthagen has a food-for-medicine research tie-up with Nestle on diabetes, and a Rs 40-crore joint venture with Dutch CCBR, Avesta Nordic Research, for joint development of a therapy for osteoporosis.

Avesthagen and TNO plan to invest several million euros in the joint venture over the next six months. The entity will be opened to third public and private investors after developing a portfolio of potential substances, said Dr Kees Ekkers, Managing Director of TNO Quality of Life. Partly funded by the Netherlands Government, TNO is a leading Dutch contract research company and has spawned enterprises to commercialise new products.

The tie-up with TNO is Avesthagen's third collaboration; a few more ventures are in the pipeline, Dr Morawala-Patell said at an event to sign the agreement. The product would take three years to develop and would be based on Avesthagen's herbal research and validated by TNO. The MoU was signed in the presence of the Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, who is leading a Dutch business delegation to the country.

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