UK drug firm opens development centre in B'lore

SPI Pharma, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based, $8 billion Associated British Foods Company, has set up a drug development and testing centre in Bangalore.

"The work at the India development centre will involve drug development and discovery, and will utilise state-of-the-art formulation and analytical equipment to enable finished product development in unique dosage forms," senior executives of the company said here today.

The new facility will enable SPI Pharma to conduct stability studies as per ICH guidelines and include provisions of a CGMP pilot manufacturing unit.The laboratory will function under good laboratory practice (GLP) standards, they added.

John Burrow, CEO of SPI Holdings, said: "With India fast becoming a scientific powerhouse in the global pharma market, the new, 16,000 sq. ft. facility inaugurated here today is significant to the company's operations in India."