Drug firm Dr Reddy's Lab (DRL) today said it will hive off its drug discovery business to a wholly-owned subsidiary, Aurigene, and will close the Atlanta Research facility in the US.
From July 1, 2009 onwards, all the resources used for drug discovery business including employees, facility and infrastructure will be transferred to Bangalore-based Aurigene, DRL said in a statement.
"Aurigene, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dr Reddy's Lab will now operate out of two sites Bangalore and Hyderabad," the company said.
Besides this, Dr Reddy's would also create a new group to focus on proprietary products development, which will be responsible for building branded research and development portfolio in collaboration with various partners and service providers.
All the existing intellectual property rights will be owned and managed by the new unit, the company said. As a part of the reorganisation, the company will close its Atlanta-based research facility in US, it added.
"We will now be placing greatest emphasis on research and development activities that can have a significant impact on near-term earnings, while not losing focus on long-term interests of the company," DRL Vice Chairman and CEO G V Prasad said while commenting on reorganisaion.
Hyderabad-based drug major also announced the initiation of phase I clinical trials for its three investigational new drugs (IND) for different therapeutic areas.
