The Bangalore-based knowledge process outsourcing company, Biozeen has invested Rs. 20 crore to set-up a full-fledged campus which spans over an area of 10 acres in Bangalore to offer consultancy in biopharmaceuticals and research support to customer processes apart from training qualified personnel for immediate induction into industry.
Going by the demand for the KPO services, the company has also planned a Rs. 200 crore investment in the next 24 months where an advanced cGMP lab for industry use is expected to be set-up. The amount is being generated partly through promoter equity and a small debt component.
KPO is driven largely by economies of scale in terms of cost, operational efficiencies and access to a trained workforce. Biopharmaceutical ventures in India which had been sourcing expertise from US, UK and Europe can now can now capitalize on Biozeen's consulting and engineering services in biologics and biopharmaceuticals, Cherian Philip, co-founder and chairman, Biozeen: Bangalore Biotech Labs said.
"We intend to duplicate the success of the information technology sector in biotechnology,'' informed Phillip who added that many national and international projects were on stream proving Biozeen's reliability and resourcefulness.
In the area of research, Biozeen is a facilitator for technology scale-up and improving efficiencies of the processes for customers.
A logical extension of Biozeen was its backward integration efforts in human resource development primarily to bridge the gap between the industry and the academia through several flexible short-term and a one year-long course. "The current manpower is not suitable to be deployed at biopharmaceutical plants. The training for human resources is for captive and industry employment. In this connection, it is also actively associated in campus recruitments. It has teamed-up with the industry to offer trained candidates,'' stated Dr. Anil Paul Kariath, president, Consulting and Training, Biozeen.
The short-term five day courses on Microbial Fermentation and Animal Culture for Monoclonal Antibody production provide an insight into the field of biopharmaceuticals providing those intending to enter this field, a career guidance.
The year-long course on Biopharmaceutical Production and Engineering which commenced in April '06 has 20 students. The training module covers microbiology, microbial fermentation, animal cell culture, downstream processing, sterilization, filtration and sterile techniques, CIP, Biopharmaceutical Facility Engineering, Process Equipment Design, Process Equipment Automation, CAD for bioprocess engineering, PLC programming and automation and Regulatory aspects and documentation. Biozeen is the Diamond Sponsor for Bangalore Bio 2006.