The center is coming up at an investment of Rs 30 crore and will be a separate profit center, said Lupin chairman Desh Bandhu Gupta.
Lupin is currently recruiting scientists for its R&D programme from India and abroad. A US-based scientist working with drug major Ely Lilly could be roped into head one research group.
Others from John Hopkins Institute and University of California are also tipped to come on board. The company is investing 30 per cent of its total R&D budget on discovering new chemical entities, while the rest will be in generics, herbal medicines, novel drug delivery systems and improved chemical entities.
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The R&D budget this year is five per cent on sales. The company expects an over 24 per cent topline growth this year.
In fact, work on new chemical entities has already commenced in the existing research centers, Gupta said.
Lupin will embark on advanced stage clinical trials in Zurich of an anti-migraine herbal drug code-named LLL2011. The phase three trials are being conducted by a well-known scientist affiliated to the Zurich Medical College, Gupta said. Lupin may license out this molecule to an interested global drug major.
Lupin, which made its name as a producer of anti-tuberculosis drugs, is now embarking on an ambitious programme to capture 10 per cent of the world TB formulations market in the next one year.
The company is in talks with the Rockefeller Foundation to fund its R&D efforts in TB. The company has also been approached by a Seattle-based innovator of a novel TB compound PA 824 for a partnership, Gupta said.
Lupin has produced a fixed dose combination of the four essential drugs that form the bedrock of TB treatment all over the world as per World Health Organisation standards. The combination is currently undergoing scrutiny by the Drug Technical Advisory Board whose go-ahead is required to produce and market it in the country.
Lupin has dedicated 40 per cent of the total new chemical entities budget to discovering broad-spectrum anti-bacterials that could be used in TB treatment.
The Pune-based center is located on a 20-acre greenfield site. It will engage about 200 scientists in various disciplines of process chemistry, molecular modeling, medicinal chemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, toxicology and drug delivery systems.