From Hindu Business Line website:
TCG Life offers R&D for entire drug development lifecycle
Meera Mohanty
|
Selling
services as `projects' to global pharma, biotech cos |
Focus
Hopes to have research expertise on certain diseases in 5
yrs.
Plans to up scientific, technical strength to over 5,000 by 2012.
Business of over $5 b in R&D expected to be outsourced to
Currently undertaking
multi-disciplinary research services for global pharma and biotech companies,
the company has started to sell its services as `projects'.
The activities include
early-stage research, biobanking, chemistry and biology discovery services,
pre-clinical and clinical development, enterprise informatics and genomics and proteomic services.
"Between 2006-07 we
have undertaken about half a dozen of such projects," said Mr Swapan
Bhattacharya, MD, TCG Lifesciences (TCGLS). Key therapeutic areas such as
infectious diseases, metabolic diseases and oncology have been identified as
specialisations.
"Five years from
now, we hope to have enough research expertise on certain diseases to create
comprehensive capabilities in those areas, and be a significant enough partner
in the drug discovery phase to be able to demand a share in sale in the event
of a successful drug," said Mr Bhattacharya.
Business outlook
Business of over $5
billion in research and development services is expected to be outsourced to
TCGLS is also counting on
leveraging its large skilled force to offer its partners a `flexible team' of
scientists. According to Mr Bhattacharya, international pharma companies spend
anywhere between $2,50,000 and $3,00,000 a year on
each scientist — an expenditure that TCGLS is promising to reduce
significantly.
Plans to increase
scientific and technical strength to over 5,000 by 2012 from its existing
strength of 800 are being rolled out at its 1-lakh sq ft Kolkata facility that
will accommodate 1,000-1,200 scientists in a year's time. A discovery research
facility on a ten-acre campus at the
Currently, revenue
contribution is divided in a 40-40-20 ratio between its drug discovery
services, enterprise informatics and clinical research work. According to
TCGLS, 18 of the top 20 pharma companies globally are clients and 92 per cent
of them renew their association.
Bench to bed and
back
In the future, the
company would like to focus on `translational medicine', which connects basic
medical research more directly to patient care, emphasising on the linkage
between the laboratory and the patient's bedside or what's called `bench to
bedside and back'.
As a partner to the
Government in The Centre for Genomic Application, TCG Lifesciences, which
started out as a Clinical Research Organisation, believes it can become the
preferred enabler for translational medicine in
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