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P.T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai June 7 Domestic drug makers are forging global alliances not just with overseas companies, but they are also partnering with local companies to undertake research for the development of new drugs, said Dr Rashmi H. Barbhaiya of Advinus Therapeutics.

"We are already working with reputable Indian companies to support their NCE (new chemical entities) development efforts," Dr Barbhaiya, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Advinus, told Business Line recently. He did not divulge the names of the companies and therapeutic areas they were in for confidentiality reasons.

Advinus is a "two-year-young" drug discovery and development company, promoted by the Tata group.

Corroborating Dr Barbhaiya's observation, an official with a leading Mumbai-based drug company said that his company was doing early-discovery research through Advinus.

Merck deal

In November last year, Advinus had forged a deal with Merck, where Advinus would identify candidates for pre-clinical and early clinical development in segments such as diabetes, obesity, metabolic diseases and hypertension.

The two companies had their first meeting in December last year, Dr Barbhaiya said. Advinus is entitled to royalty and milestone payments, if the research throws up prospective candidates that can be developed into drugs.

Advinus employs 330 people and has research facilities at Pune and Bangalore.

He indicated that there were plans to increase the size of the organisation, though no specific details were given.

The company also has its internal discovery programmes in segments such as metabolic diseases and inflammation. Though it was premature to indicate Advinus' strategy on taking a prospective drug molecule to market, he said they would look to develop a drug up to phase II and then evaluate the situation on partnering.

Indian drug companies like Glenmark have successfully adopted the strategy of developing a prospective drug molecule to a certain level and licensing it out to a deep-pocketed overseas partner to develop it further and eventually commercialise the product.

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Advinus collaborates with local cos for research

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