Innovassynth inks pact with US firm for anti-cancer drug

Mumbai-based Innovassynth Technologies (I) Limited (formerly known as Chemicals Division of Indian Organic Chemicals Limited) has signed an MoU with a US-based company for manufacture of an anti-cancer medicine.

Apart from this, Innovassynth, which is into contract R&D, custom synthesis and contract manufacturing, is also manufacturing a nutraceutical product made from tobacco waste for a European multinational.

Speaking to Business Standard, B Sahu, president and chief executive officer of Innovassynth, said, "We have recently signed an MoU with a Silicon Valley-based company for forward integration of emidytes to oligonucleotides. This kind of research helps in the formulation of new generation medicines that help in curing a disease by gene modification."

"We are also manufacturing a nutraceutical product that is multi-vitamin, energises cells and is anti-ageing, for a European multinational. At present, toxicology studies are being done on the product and it is likely to be marketed in 2006," Sahu said.

"This product is being made from tobacco waste and we will be doing 90 per cent purification and chemical synthesis of the product at our plant in Khopoli near Mumbai," Sahu said.

Innovassynth has an 85-acre plant in Khopoli near Mumbai. The company has dedicated 35 acres for residential purposes and the remaining for research.

"The European multinational has signed a 15-year contract with us for this purpose and we have in turn signed agreements with three parties in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. These parties will be doing the initial purification (till 45 per cent) of the product based on our technology," he added.

"We are also doing joint research with US-based Geron Corporation on emidytes for treatment of brain tumour. At present, this product is under phase-II trials," Sahu said. Geron is a biopharma company that develops and commercialises therapeutic and diagnostic products for cancer based on human embryonic cell-based technology.

"With US-based Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc we are doing research on five products. These products will help in the treatment of diseases like cancer, tumour and diabetes," he added.

Isis is a drug discovery and development company, the work of which is based on nucleosides. "Genome-based drug discovery methods are increasingly becoming popular across the world. We are, therefore, expecting our revenues to increase to $ 25 million by 2005-06 from the $10-million that we are likely to touch by this year-end," Sahu said.