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Sun Pharma to foray into biotech
By siliconindia staff writer
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Thursday, 04 March 2004, 20:30 IST
MUMBAI: Domestic pharma company Sun Pharma is planning to foray into the biotech space. The company is likely to focus on products that are on the high end of the biotech spectrum.
Biotech will become an increasingly important part of the pharmaceuticals business and we will need to look at it, said Dilip Sanghvi, Sun Pharmas chairman and MD. He added that the company intends to develop its capability and achieve competence in this area.
Sun Pharma will also explore the possibilities of alliances. We may collaborate with outside companies for biotechnology, Mr Sanghvi said. The company has bid for the state-owned pharma company Hindustan Antibiotics (HAL), which was a pioneer in penicillin manufacturing in the country. We made a bid because we are interested in the fermentation facilities for biotech, Mr Sanghvi said.
HAL produces a range of biologicals like antibiotics and erythropoeitin, in addition to anti-tuberculosis drugs, anti-bacterials, analgesics, cardiac drugs and vitamins. Mr Sanghvi declined to specify which areas of biotechnology the company will focus on. However, the products are more likely to be high end biotech products like monoclonal antibodies, an area that many leading companies are currently working on.
Suns bid is to acquire all the existing businesses and infrastructure of HAL. We have submitted our bid to BIFR and are still awaiting a decision on it. It could take about six months, he said.
HAL is currently in BIFR (Board for Financial and Industrial Reconstruction).
Mr Sanghvi said the company will go ahead with its biotech plans irrespective of the outcome of the HAL bid. The company also plans to use biotech as a research tool. Were trying to build our ability in areas like gene expression, he said.