TCS code for drug discovery

Pharmaceutical industry in makeover mode.

Close on the heels of developing India's first commercial bio-suite product, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is foraying into the drug discovery area.

The IT major is all set to bag its first project from a Europe-based drug discovery firm. This involves providing services using its bio-suite product, a software package for life sciences and biotechnology.

"Talks are on with a European drug discovery firm," J Rajagopal, director, global life sciences and healthcare, TCS, told Business Standard.

He refused to divulge the name of the company or the details of the potential revenue from the deal, but added it would be the company's first project in the drug discovery area. "Payment will depend on the services we provide," he said.

TCS's bio-informatics division has an alliance with Israeli biotech company BioStrx, which offers drug discovery services to pharmaceutical and biotech firms.

However, the Tata group does not have any plan to re-enter the pharmaceuticals business. In the late 1990s, the Tatas sold Merind and Tata Pharma to Wockhardt.

Said Rajagopal, "The increasing use of IT solutions in the drug discovery processes and the clinical trial stages will mean a significant reduction in the time to market of blockbuster drugs."

As the outsourcing boom seems to be spreading beyond the traditional spectrum of IT services, TCS is moving into drug discovery outsourcing aggressively. "There is a tremendous opportunity in drug discovery outsourcing," Rajagopal said.

The initiative, which falls under TCS' Advanced Technology Practice based in Hyderabad, is led by M Vidyasagar, executive vice-president, TCS, and a former colleague of the President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam.

In life sciences and healthcare, TCS developed the Tata Bio-suite, a portable, versatile software package, in collaboration with some of India's leading academic institutes through the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative, a programme sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The council also funded this initiative. TCS will license the bio-suite for Rs 49,990 to the CSIR, while charging pharmaceutical companies much larger sums.

TCS currently has 40 people working at its research and development centre in Hyderabad. "The intellectual property rights of Tata Bio-suite remain with us and we can commercialise it both in India and abroad," Rajagopal added.

It is estimated that the worldwide market for software and IT services related to bioinformatics will touch $2.6 billion by 2007. The Indian market for this is currently worth around Rs 40 crore.

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Logging onto molecules

THE EQUATION: TCS will develop the software and a European drugs discovery company will conduct the drug R&D

THE BENEFITS: The use of IT solutions in the drug discovery processes will mean a significant reduction in the time to market of blockbuster drugs

THE MARKET: The worldwide market for software and IT services related to bio-informatics will touch $2.6 billion by 2007. The Indian market for this is currently worth Rs 40 crore