The Hindu Business Line : Meet to attract global pharma cos for local tie-ups

THE anti-outsourcing sentiment against domestic info-tech companies is not perceived in the global pharmaceutical segment, according to members of the Lifesciences Alliance. The Alliance comprises four pharmaceutical companies who have come together in a bid to attract more multinational drug majors to partner with domestic pharma companies.

And towards this purpose, they have organised a Lifesciences Symposium to be held in Goa between April 29 and May 1, this year. The Alliance, formed last year, comprises Austin Chemical Company Inc-USA, the Hyderabad-based Suven Life Sciences, Chennai-based Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Ltd and the Mumbai-based Innovasynth Technologies.

Speaking to presspersons here today, Mr Venkat Jasti, Managing Director of Suven said that no anti-sourcing sentiment was perceived in the global pharma segment, since the product pipeline was "anaemic" for most global companies. "In pharma, it is not just body-shopping but collaborating with the intellectual property of local companies," he said, adding that it was more economical for the MNCs to outsource.

There outsourcing opportunity for research and development (R&D) from India is about $ 2 billion and clinical trials is another $ 2 billion. The global R&D outsourcing opportunity is about $ 25 billion. "Indian has been attracting only a miniscule part of the total global opportunity. MNCs need to be convinced that India will protect patents, before they come forward to partner with domestic companies in the whole process of drug development," he said.

``Companies from the US, India, Europe and China including Pfizer and Eli Lily would participate in the symposium which will provide a platform to share perspectives from global industry experts on complexity of globalisation of pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing processes,'' said Dr B Sahu, CEO and President of Innovasynth Technologies (I) Ltd.

Dr Ashis Mukherjee, Chief Scientific Officer, Shasun, said that Indian pharma companies were already collaborating with global companies.