“The fund will focus on drug discovery… The size of the fund could be between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 3,000 crore,” Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary Ashok Kumar, told reporters on the sidelines of valedictory ceremony of BioAsia-2010 here today.

The Indian Institute of Public Finance and Policy would help with the formation of the fund and the process may take about four months, he added.

He said the department has come out with a white paper titled Pharma Vision 2020 and the Planning Commission has agreed to the proposal in principle.

The Secretary said the proposed fund would not only take care of the finance for drug discovery but also cover risks to some extent in case of failures.

Courtesy: PTI

The clinic will adopt a highly interactive methodology .Under the mentorship of experienced professionals, a real-life scenario will be simulated wherein the participants will work on suitable cases.

The AIPS clinic will train participants with the support of leading faculty H. Subramaniam of Subramaniam, Natraj & Associates, New Delhi and Dr B N Roy of Lupin Ltd.

Courtesy: www.pharmabiz.com

RISE will leverage Infosys’ Scientific Innovation Solution for knowledge collaboration, novel ways to unlock disparate data spread across in-house research labs and other commercial or public sources which will be presented to scientists in context of their research needs, a company press release said.

The co-creationmodel would enable Infosys retain ownership of co-developed IP as part of the implementation.

Courtesy: PTI

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 50.7 crore for the quarter ending December 31, 2009, Torrent Pharmaceutical said in a statement.

During the third quarter of the current fiscal, the company’s net sales rose by 10.3 per cent at Rs 464.20 crore as compared with Rs 420.88 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company said its formulations sales in India in the quarter stood at Rs 182.9 crore an increase of over 15 per cent as compared with Rs 159.75 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

It has reported a 10 per cent increase in its overseas sales at Rs 246.1 crore for the quarter.

Courtesy: PTI

For the nine months period ended December 2009, Aartis net sales touched to Rs 346.57 crore as compared to Rs 274.65 crore in the similar period of last year, a growth of 26.2 per cent. Its net profit went up by 80 per cent to Rs 18.87 crore from Rs 10.48 crore.

The company has issued four lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each on December 20, 2009 against conversion of convertible warrants issued on preferential basis. With this issue, its equity capital increased to Rs 12.11 crore from Rs 11.71 crore in the last period. Promoters are holding around 50 per cent of the total equity capital.

Courtesy: www.pharmabiz.com

The sales of bulk drugs, intermediates, etc., improved by 104 per cent to Rs 71.28 crore from Rs 35.02 crore.

For the nine months period ended December 2009, Shilpa Medicare’s net profit reached at Rs 33.07 crore as compared to a net loss of Rs 2.07 crore in the similar period of last year. Its net sales moved up to Rs 195.18 crore from RS 119.67 crore, a growth of 63.1 per cent. Its bulk drugs sales amounted to rs 193.02 crore during the first three quarters of 2009-10 as compared to Rs 117.62 crore.

Courtesy: www.pharmabiz.com

The net sales improved only by 8.5 per cent to Rs 260.40 crore from Rs 240 crore. The earning per share touched to Rs 14.55 from Rs 4.23 in the last period. The company has commenced production in its injectable sections in Baddi facility and are already approached by its existing partners, thereby targeting a good capacity utilisation of these facilities. It is through with all pre-requisites of Fentanyl Patch manufacture, & the trial production runs are commencing during the quarter, enabling the launch of the product in May/June 2010.

Further, rapid film trial runs are successfully done at its Baddi plant. The first product targeted, i.e. Ondansetron oral strip’s stability data is satisfactory and the product will be made available in the market in April/May 2010. Co-marketing opportunities for the said product with companies of international repute are also at a very progressive stage. Other two product i.e. Doneppezil and Olanzepine in the similar category are also in the active state of technology transfer, which is expected to be completed by the end of coming month.

For the nine months ended December 2009, Ankur’s sales increased by 13.6 per cent to Rs 806.10 crore from s 722.26 crore. Its net profit moved up by 48.8 per cent to Rs 77.78 crore from Rs 52.28 crore. With this earning per share improved to Rs 40.21 as compared to s 28.08 in the last period.

Courtesy: www.pharmabiz.com

Biovel’s development pipeline comprises of vaccines and biotherapeutics, the two companies said in a statement.

“This transaction with Biovel provides us an entry platform to manufacture vaccines as well as biotherapeutics. The vaccine and biotherapeutics business will be an important part of our growth strategy,” Ranbaxy Chief Executive Atul Sobti said in the statement.

Ranbaxy is majority owned by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo.

Courtesy: www.financialexpress.com

Its revenues from pharma solutions (custom manufacturing) business remained flat at Rs 210 crore. Its revenues from Indian facilities have grown by 42.3 per cent to Rs 110 crore as against Rs 80.55 crore. With acquisition of Minrad, its revenues from critical care business went up to Rs 77.85 crore as compared to Rs 29.56 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

The company gained Rs 20.43 crore in taxation as against payment of Rs 7.18 crore in the last period. Similarly, is interest burden went down to Rs 21.65 crore from Rs 26.11 crore. The company’s R&D expenditure reduced to Rs 15.93 crore from Rs 20.01 crore. However, its provision for depreciation increased sharply by 47.1 per cent to Rs 43.36 crore from Rs 29.47 crore.

For the nine months period ended December 2009, Piramal Helathcare’s net income improved by 12.3 per cent to Rs 2729 crore from Rs 2430 crore in the same period of last year. Its net profit has taken a quantum jump of 62.7 per cent to Rs 327.58 crore from Rs 201.35 crore. The revenues from pharmaceutical segment increased by 12 per cent to Rs 2577 crore from Rs 2303 crore.

Courtesy: www.pharmabiz.com

“We have made investments in India and committed to grow the business here. This market, like any of the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, China, Eastern Europe and South East Asian countries, is a fundamental priority for the company”, Diane E Meador, senior director, marketing services Worldwide, Waters Corporation, told Pharmabiz.

Meador is in India to tap the growth areas of the future from India. Through Waters India, its cent percent subsidiary of the parent company, efforts are on to tap the potential customers. “We have seen all sectors of the bio-pharma segment in the emerging markets showing lucrative opportunities. Therefore, we intend to leave no stone unturned”, she said.

Waters which is known for its Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatograph (UPLC) and Mass Spectrometry (MS) are a platform for choice for the life sciences companies. The combination of UPLC and MS have helped customers to maximize the scientific exploration capability for compounds analysis for pharmaceuticals, bulk chemical materials including new chemical entities, by-products, impurities, metabolites, vitamins, nutrients, endogenous compounds like hormones, steroids, lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, peptides, proteins pesticides, herbicides, inorganic and organic chemicals. In addition, biological matrices like blood, serum, plasma, urine, bile, tissue, in vitro samples, environmental samples like water, soil and forensic samples.

In the last 18-24 months, Waters has introduced a range of promising products like Xevo quadrupole time-of-flight (QTof) mass spectrometer, a bench-top instrument which is highly sensitive for laboratory tests. Its Synapt HDMS System, the first mass spectrometry (MS) has helped to advance research in proteomics, structural biology and small molecule experiments.

For the future, we are looking at chips, nanotechnology and seamless integration of products to cater to small bench sizes keeping sustainability and the green technology factor in perspective. Products of the future would be compact and will address issues to reduce toxicity, said Meador.

The global recessionary phase has left Waters Corporation unscathed because of its brand reputation and customer loyalty, she said. The company which registered earnings to the tune of $1.5 billion in 2008 expects to be on a positive growth curve. Its financial results are expected next week.

However, the global economic slowdown has put forth challenges for lab equipment majors who are putting up with the consolidation of the big pharma companies which has resulted in a dip in use of instruments. Now the task before lab majors is to quickly identify applications for chemical analysis which need support with novel instrumentation.

A visible trend is laboratory technology space is to measure the competence of the equipment to enhance lab productivity and decision-making of users.

In the emerging markets, for Waters generic drug manufacturers are major component of business orders along with clinical and contract research companies All these companies are looking technologies to enable faster time-to-market. Before the month end, Waters is ready to introduce a range to optimize lab and production performance of drug research and manufacturing companies, stated Meador.

Courtesy: www.pharmabiz.com