Syngene, Novartis ink pact for drug discovery

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 02 September 2004, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Syngene International, a subsidiary of India's largest biotechnology firm, has inked a contract with US-based Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research for research on new drug discovery and development. The contract was signed recently after a senior contingent from Cambridge, Massachusetts, the global headquarters of Novartis, visited Syngene, a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd, in Bangalore last month. According to Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the alliance with Novartis would enhance Syngene's ability to conduct world-class research. "It is yet another step in our evolution as a valuable partner to the global pharma industry. It will provide Syngene an opportunity to interact with one of the world's leading scientific teams," Shaw said in a statement Tuesday. Commenting on the deal, Novartis's global head for strategic alliances, Jeremy Levin, said his company had an aggressive programme to seek the best collaborations worldwide. The decade-old Syngene has emerged as one of India's leading custom research organisations with multi-disciplinary skills in synthetic chemistry and molecular biology. The 320-million subsidiary employs about 300 scientists and offers a cost-competitive edge in early stage drug discovery and development to its global clients. Some of its leading customers are AstraZeneca, Bristol Mayer, Pfizer and GSK. "The core Indian contract research industry (excluding clinical trials) is relatively young with an annual turnover of $50-60 million, but is growing rapidly at 40-50 percent a year," Shaw noted. "The growth prospects are bright, as India accounts for only 0.7 percent of the $4 billion global market for early phase drug discovery and chemical synthesis." Novartis India president Ranjit Shahani said with India having a huge diaspora of talented scientists and chemists, such contracts push research and development in pharmaceuticals to newer levels. "Partnerships such as this devolve and optimise lead times and costs. A robust patent regime post-2005 will encourage such collaborations in the future," Shahani said.