Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca opened its Process Research & Development Laboratory (PR&DL) in Bangalore. Currently, 50 scientists are hired and the facility will increase the head count to 75 by 2009.
There are seven teams within PR&DL which include analytical chemistry, development manufacture process chemistry, process engineering, projects management,, business development and good manufacturing practices (GMP) quality assurance.
"We plan to recruit additional scientists from the organic, analytical and process engineering disciplines from universities directly or with varying levels of local or overseas experience," stated Dr Sudhir Nambiar, director, PR&DL, AstraZeneca India adding that the facility was a challenge for dedicated Indian chemists who have already proved themselves in the generic space. The process R&D Lab will also gear up to train pharma-biotech students in process safety.
The PR&DL was set up at an investment of $15 million, covers 8,000 sq.m on a 14,200 sq. m plot is located next to the Avishkar Discovery and the AstraZeneca Pharma India marketing and sales offices. A focus area of the facility will be New Chemical Entities (NCEs). The scientists will design the route and processes that enable the precaution of the active ingredient or the compound which affects the disuse.
For AstraZeneca, India is the fourth PR&DL and the only one outside Europe. The company has two PR&DL facilities in the UK and one in Sweden.
The primary objective to set base in India was the inherent strengths in process chemistry, synthesis of complex molecule, cost advantage, access to advanced analytical technical work force, stated Dr David Haywood, global vice president, Global Process R&D, AstraZeneca. India was the choice to keep lower costs ad lower overheads, he added.
Although the focus area for PR&DL is TB, the company has not yet produced the candidate drug and therefore it will work on other therapies. The candidate drug is expected in 2009, stated Dr. Jan Lundberg.
According to Dr Lundberg, the PR&DL will harness the genomic revolution. It will see the deployment of multi expertise including bioinformatics and biochemistry. The focus areas apart from Tuberculosis will be cardiovascular disorders, diabetes and infectious diseases. "We intend to transform the treatment paradigm by being able to control the disease in early stages.
At its R&D facilities in the 15 centres located in 8 countries around 15,000 personnel are employed, which is a clear indication of the focus the global pharmaceutical major has towards working for the newer therapies which include neurosciences -Alzheimer's, pain management and depression, said Dr Jan Lundberg, executive vice president, discovery research, AstraZeneca.
Although the company 25 per cent development focus is on monoclonal antibodies (MABs), it may not be initially for TB drug discovery but for other critical disorders like cancer and infectious diseases. For TB it will work on small chemicals to penetrate stared Dr Lundberg.
On the drug targets for research at AstraZeneca, Dr Lundberg stated that in 2006 they has 21 new drug candidates and all efforts were being made to strengthen the discovery capabilities.
At the inauguration of the PR&DL, David Brennan, chief executive officer, AstraZeneca Plc said that the facility will strengthen the existing global PR&D programmes. It will focus on novel therapies for developing world diseases. Also present on the occasion were Karnataka government chief secretary, PB Mahishi, Infosys chairman NR Narayana Murthy.