Biocon's 10 years' investments in research and development in biotech products have started yielding results.

The Bangalore-based biotech major has been developing products for diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, rheumatoid arthritis, organ transplant and immunosuppressants with new molecules, which are in advanced stages of research.

``HR-3, the latest oncology drug to treat head and cancer cases is the one which is most visible from our R&D stable. Behind it are a slew of products including antibodies, oral insulin and other biologicals apart from a host of smaller molecules,'' Shrikumar Suryanarayan, president, research and development, Biocon Limited said.

Potentially, any one of these molecules could be several $100 million in sales worldwide and all that is required is one success, he said.

When India became signatory to GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in 1995, which brought in patent law changes, most companies continued with ``copycat'' molecules. But Biocon however, devised a long term and aggressive research and development strategy to innovate and introduce new drug molecules, Suryanarayan said.

GATT Uruguay Round fundamentally stated that any molecule invented after 1995 cannot be introduced except if the company is the original inventor.

Biocon wasted no time in setting up a solid R&D plan in place. And the very molecules were invented after 1995 are the ones that were just being lunched in the market today since it takes 10 years from discovery to development of molecules. Hence most molecules being launched around the world today are highly likely to have been invented after 1995. So automatically the entire pharma sector in the country, which has always relied on copycat methodology, is in trouble, said Suryanarayan.

"However, a strategy likes this takes five to six years to pay off. That is why the focus is on new molecules. All the generic products we have done in the last four years will provide the revenue stream to keep us going till these new products come in. Of course, the new products are risky,'' he said.

Biocon is not only increasing investment in R&D, but its discovery and development of molecules is turning out to be human resource intensive. ``This will see the company double its staff strength from 200 to 400 because it takes more people to discover a new molecule than to discover a known molecule. While developing a known molecule, scientific teams are only concentrating on a tiny fraction of a whole development process. When working on new molecules, research starts from the discovery, mechanism of action including clinical trials,'' Suryanarayan said.

For this, Biocon has invested in its subsidiaries Clinigene, its clinical research wing and Syngene, the custom research outsourcing arm. ``The company has expanded both its in-house and contract research facilities, taking advantage of the GATT Uruguay Round, which brought about significant changes in patent law,'' added the R&D president.