The Hindu Business Line : IICT ties up with two Hyderabad firms

The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has entered into technology/consultancy agreements with two Hyderabad-based chemical and biotechnology companies.

It has tied up with Saamya Biotech (India) Ltd for consultancy and utilisation of IICT facilities. The effort is to help the former develop fermentation-based therapeutic products.

The focus of Saamya Biotech is in the areas of cancer, infectious diseases and general healthcare.

It has a collaboration with Biofin Laboratories of Italy. The company is indigenising the technologies obtained from Biofin.

For this purpose, it plans to utilise the facilities and consultancy services offered by the IICT to develop products in its focus areas.

The second tie-up for the IICT, a constituent national laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR), is with Vasant Chemicals.

Under the agreement between the two, the preparation and supply of photo-resistant ink jet dyes and other specialty chemicals on bench scale would be undertaken, according to the IICT. Vasant Chemicals will supply these photo-resistant chemicals to Samsung and inkjet dyes and other specialty chemicals to Kodak, Fuji etc., for digital printing and other applications.

The IICT is also strengthening its scientific infrastructure facilities to meet the growing demands from domestic and foreign industries. It is setting up a Rs 25-crore centre for combinatorial and natural products facility in its campus, according to Dr J.S. Yadav, Director.

The centre is being funded through grants from the Department of Science and Technology's pharma fund.

Currently, Nicholas Piramal is the only other entity with a comparable facility in the country.

With increasing interest among researchers to find promising molecules in natural products for developing drugs, the facility is expected to emerge as a key national asset.

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