Life Sciences in talks with 2 global majors for outsourcing

Life Sciences Alliance, a private alliance formed last year between Austin Chemical Company Inc (USA), Suven Life Sciences (India), Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Ltd (India) and Innovasynth Technologies (India) announced that it was in talks with two of the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world for doing outsourced work.

Addressing a press conference to announce a 'Lifesciences Symposium' to be held in Goa between 29 April and 1 May, Venkat Jasti, managing director of Suven Life Sciences, said that the alliance was in an advanced stage of talks with two global pharma majors.

"We have made presentations to two of the top five companies and they are very aggressive about their intentions on how they want to use what we are offering. The due diligence of our facilities is going on," Jasti said.

"India is a signatory to the WTO and starting 2005 there will be lot more interest in what the Indian pharmaceutical sector has to offer. We are in a good position and it will take another two to three years for the results to show. As of now, the facilities that the Life Sciences Alliance has is beyond the expectations of the two global players," he said.

B Sahu, CEO and president of Innovasynth Technologies, said, "The big pharma companies need to develop confidence in India. Earlier it was not happening because of IPR related issues, but with India signing the WTO, we should see increased participation between them and the Indian companies."

Speaking over video phone, Sri Mosur, vice-president of Global Business Development, Austin Chemical, said that as of today it cost the big pharma close to $900 million in developing a drug.

"Today 60 per cent of the research is done in the US, 30 per cent in Europe and about 10 per cent in Asia. It is not just about the cost of developing a new drug but can Asia contribute more in terms of innovation to speed up the drug discovery process. If we can do that then 50 per cent of the research work will be done in the US, 30 per cent in India and about 20 per cent in Europe," Mosur said.

According to Mosur, India could become a major research and development hub once the WTO norms kicked in 2005 and the intellectual property regime began in India.

The three-day symposium in Goa, being organised by the alliance will offer a unique opportunity to the global pharmaceutical industry to discuss trends and challenges in both the emerging as well as evolved pharmaceutical markets.

The symposium is expected to share perspectives from global industry experts on the complexity of globalisation of pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing process.

Experts from India, USA, Europe and China in academia, industry, and regulators are expected to participate. Prominent speakers include Leland Weigel from Lilly Research, Potkar from Pfizer and Nagarkatti from Sigma Aldrich.

Discussions will cover areas such as global intellectual property, pharmaceutical drug discovery, pharmaceutical drug development, clinical research, global regulatory, evolving pharmaceutical outsourcing, pharmaceutical business and investment in India.