The Hindu Business Line : Avesthagen in tie-up with Finland centre

Avesthagen Ltd said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre to take up product-based research projects in ‘theranostics’ – therapy-based diagnostics – that works towards predictive and personalised medicine.

The research will focus on the design and fabrication of diagnostic chips to create molecular diagnostic kits that would be in line with a range of biosimilars. VTT would initially focus novel diagnostic tools for ‘theranostics’ using Avesthagen’s expertise in systems biology, a release said.

Novel functional foods

The two plan to develop novel functional foods — foods with natural or added therapeutic properties – to treat or prevent lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and bone-related diseases. The projects will extend to other projects from Finland and /or other countries.

Dr Hannu Lampola, Vice-President, Business Solutions, Biotechnology, said, “VTT and Avesthagen share a vision that theranostics, personalised medicine and functional foods will be of importance for future healthcare systems.

“We are keen to establish a long-term alliance with Avesthagen, develop and commercialise new solutions in this rapidly growing area.”

Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, Founder & CMD, Avesthagen, said, “In our quest to marry life sciences and technology, we have reached out to VTT as partners since their domain knowledge will help us create new horizons”.

VTT, established in 1942, has a turnover of €245 million (around Rs 1,640 crore) is the biggest multi-technological applied research organisation in northern Europe and a non-profit organisation sponsored by the Finnish Government.