Advinus Therapeutics, a joint venture R&D arm of Tata Group, is working to accelerate its future initiatives through organic and inorganic growth pathways.

The focus of research of the one year-old company will be three therapeutic areas namely metabolic disorders, inflammatory diseases and neglected diseases such as malaria, TB, Leshmaniasis, dengue fever and leprosy. Advinus will also look at oncology and infectious diseases through partnerships with the global pharma-biotech companies for its discovery programmes. The research JV will increase its efforts in sponsored research from international not-for-profit organizations for the "Neglected Disease" programme.

"As part of the organic growth strategy, we will make the best out of our expertise in order to increase our drug discovery presence. Inorganic growth will be chalked out through mergers or acquisitions in India and abroad which will complement our existing drug discovery capability. For large animal toxicology studies, we would explore off shore options", Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, CEO and managing director, Advinus Therapeutics told Pharmabiz.

Cross border drug discovery and development alliances with different organizations will only help to bring out the strengths and create synergies, averred the Advinus chief.

Advinus at its Pune location focuses on drug discovery and Bangalore handles the development businesses. The former is a long gestation and high-risk business model. In order to mitigate the early stage hiccups from the drug discovery business, Advinus has envisaged a comprehensive drug development service to offer custom synthesis of new chemical entities, formulation development, analytical R&D, bio-analysis, safety assessment services and toxicology studies to generate the required revenues and achieve the profit margins.

"Drug discovery is the engine that will help Advinus to fuel its pipeline and productivity. R&D expertise in agro chemicals and pharmaceuticals will be the key growth drivers. The company's progress will be assessed on the discovery of novel small molecule therapies with intellectual property rights and strengths in being able to license the molecules," said Dr. Barbhaiya.

"We will build on innovation to be distinctly different from other current business models in the country where the spotlight is on generics, exports and API manufacture. Going by our capabilities, Advinus can provide a distinct advantage in partnerships and our differentiator is the team with a wealth of experienced US talent at an Indian price," he added.

The drug discovery and development will inevitably provide an option to explore the animal studies arena where the company will look for possible buyout of small or medium facility.

Since its inception in mid 2006, Advinus collaborated with Merck for drug discovery and with the Swiss-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit R&D organization to devise novel therapies for visceral leishmaniasis or kala azar.

The company is crystal clear on the delivery schedules for its pre clinical, clinical development and licensing of molecules programmes. Between 2007 to 2011, development projects from Bangalore will provide the incomes and thereafter drug discovery venture from Pune will add on both value and revenues.

Advinus is working to be recognized as the premier innovation driven enterprise focusing on multiple therapeutic areas with a proven capability in licensing of molecules, receiving high milestone payments, inking maximum relationships with partners and in the process generating the revenues, said Dr Barbhaiya.