Jubilant set to get MNC ally for drug discovery

Jubilant Organosys, the largest custom research and manufacturing services company in the country offering products and services to global life science companies, is set to clinch a sizable deal with a multinational pharma company in the drug discovery and development space, even as it puts in place a new business model for its bio-sciences subsidiary, Jubilant Biosys.

While the company officials are tightlipped about the deal, it is known that the alliance will be in the therapeutic segments of diabetes, cardiovascular or cancer drugs. "We are looking at an alliance with an MNC company engaged in drug discovery that could materialise any day," said a senior company executive.

This could well be the first of many such deals to be struck by the company. Commenting on the new business model, J M Khanna, executive director, Jubilant Organosys, said, "(Jubilant) Biosys, which has so far been providing informatics services, has databases of proteins, kinase etc from which we can identify 'lead candidates', work out compounds and even do the medicinal chemistry in-house through our subsidiary (Jubilant Clinsys). Thereafter, we can even take the molecule to the preclinical stage."

He, however, declined to comment on the deal size or the timeframe by when it could materialise. The sponsor could either be there from the scratch or come in later at the preclinical stage. "We are working on a few targets, but it is still at an early planning stage," added Khanna.

The focus areas would be diabetes, cardiovascular, central nervous system, cancer and inflammatory, which are high-growth segments.

"It is still at the drawing board stage. The intellectual property rights could be shared as under a royalty model or fee-based, in which we would have no proprietary rights," said the company officials.

With synergies in bioinformatics and chemoinformatics through Jubilant Biosys, a chemical synthesis facility in Jubilant Chemsys and a contract research organisation in Jubilant Clinsys, this came naturally. But new chemical entities are still four-five years away, Khanna said.

Jubilant came up with a slew of acquisitions in the past, from Psi and Psi Supply in Belgium for $17 million to the US-based Trinity Labs and Trigen for $12.25 million.

Its buyout of Target Research Associates Inc in the US for $33.5 million was the largest acquisition by an Indian CRO (contract research organisation) and the company is now combing Europe for potential targets.