The Hindu Business Line : GVK Bio looking at deal with private equity players

Research centre: Dr Robert R. Ruffolo (right), President, Wyeth Research and Development, and Mr G.V. Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director of GVK Biosciences, at the launch of GVK Bio Wyeth Chemistry Research Centre for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Hyderabad on Saturday. —

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Oct. 6 GVK Biosciences today announced a research-cum-chemistry centre for Wyeth Pharma and hinted at its moves to part divest stake with private equity (PE) players.

The move to divest stake is part of the company’s plan to meet its expansion plan, create an integrated research centre, campus and for proposed mergers and acquisition plans, the Chairman of GVK Bio, Mr D.S. Brar, told newspersons.

“We have been approached by several private equity players over the years. However, we are now ready and expect to raise up to Rs 100 crore. The deal is likely very shortly,” he said.

The Founder and Managing Director of GVK Bio, Mr G.V. Sanjay Reddy, said: “the company has made significant strides over the last few years from a start up. We have invested about $10 million (Rs 40 crore) for the Wyeth centre, which is a vindication of the expertise the company has gained over the years in drug and phrama research.”

From a bioinformatics company, which started with a facility to train people with expertise in research and development, the company now handles entire spectrum of research and development for pharmaceutical companies.

Mr Brar said that the investment would be in the areas of Bio IT, specialities’ contract, related to formulation units and animal house. The campus would come up in a 25 acre site. A team of about 200 synthetic chemists and scientists are working on research in the new facility developed in 12 months. Located at Nacharam near Hyderabad, the GVK Bio Wyeth Chemistry centre, hosts scientific equipment and instrumentation and now handles over 700 projects.

Company’s plans

Referring to GVK Bio plans, Mr Sanjay Reddy, said that the company had earlier acquired the manufacturing facility of Dai Ichi Karkaria, a manufacturer of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and renamed it as Inogen, now part of GVK Bio.

The nature and scope of work at GVK Bio has expanded and for Wyeth, the company’s centre is responsible for designing synthetic routes for new molecules, carrying out the synthesis and characterisation of target molecules.

“From an extremely closed company, we now plan to open it up and may even consider tapping the market at an appropriate time though no firm decisions has been taken on this as yet,” Mr Reddy said.

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