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| Financial Express , July 11, 2006 |
| Galapagos signs pact with Indus Biosciences |
| B V Mahalakshmi, Hyderabad, July 10 |
| To provide chemistry services to life sciences cos |
Belgium-based Galapagos NV, a genomics-based drug discovery company, through its service division BioFocus DPI, has signed collaborations with Indus Biosciences, a subsidiary of CiVentiChem LLC in Hyderabad and ProCitius, a division of Sanmar Speciality Chemicals Ltd in Chennai, for providing integrated chemistry services to life sciences companies. |
| Through this agreement, both companies will carryout chemistry services for the BioFocus DPI Discovery Products division, with an option to provide support for client projects conducted by the BioFocus DPI Medicinal Chemistry division. While CiVentiChem is a growing CRO company offering medicinal chemistry and custom synthesis services in North Carolina and through its subsidiary Indus Biosciences, located in Hyderabad; Sanmar Speciality Chemicals, through its research arm, ProCitius Research, offers services in contract research and custom synthesis. |
| According to Bhaskar Venepalli, President and CEO of CiVentiChem, “This outsourcing enables BioFocus DPI and its partners to benefit from the excellent cost-effective chemistry services available from the country, while also enabling its clients to outsource work.” |
| Interestingly, India offers chemistry capabilities with a large resource pool of qualified chemists. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies either have established their own facilities in India, or outsourced part of their chemistry to India-based contract research organisations, he added. |
| However, when both Indus and ProCitius were contacted for the financials they declined to comment but explained on the prospective technological strengths and said that the agreement is valid upto two years. Moreover, Galapagos had signed an alliance with GSK and the continuing growth of the BioFocus DPI customer base has demanded access to additional chemistry resources. |
| It has drug discovery programmes based on proprietary, novel targets in bone and joint diseases – osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. |
| It offers a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies through its division BioFocus DPI, encompassing target discovery and drug discovery services. |
| India offers chemistry capabilities with a large resource pool of qualified chemists. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies either have established their own facilities in India, or outsourced part of their chemistry to India-based contract research organisations |
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