Hikal to shift joint research to Pune

Hikal Ltd, the Mumbai-based API manufacturing and contract research company, will shift its all collaborative research projects to its new research and development (R&D) facility coming up in Pune.

The company has five major contract R&D projects in collaboration with multinational companies. at present. All these projects are currently conducted at its Bangalore centre.

Hikal may also go for alliances with few scientific institutions such as National Chemical Laboratories (NCL) and other CSIR Labs for enhanced research collaborations on a case to case basis as per the requirement of the projects, vice-chairman Jay Hiremath said.

The company has now formed a global scientific advisory board to support its research and development and technology initiatives.

The board includes international scientists - Helmut Rupp, Germany, Andrea T Vasella, professor of organic chemistry, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Goverdhan Mehta, director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The R&D centre in Bangalore is now carrying out development of its own products and collaborative research for leading multinational companies.

The company's new contract research centre with a first phase investment of about Rs 20 crore, is coming up at Hinjewadi near Pune. The centre, which will have about 100 scientists, is likely to become fully operational by early 2006.

The company, which has received shareholders' approval to raise up to Rs 100 crore by issuing further capital, will also infuse a fresh capital.