Anthem BioSciences Pvt. Ltd, which has pioneered the concept of Discovery Research Alliance Partnership (DRAP), is now in the process of consolidating its business in the developed markets of US, Europe and Japan. DRAP focuses on every facet of drug discovery from target validation to drug candidate selection in partnership with global pharma and biotech companies.

Anthem is positioning itself as an end-to-end solutions provider in chemistry and biology by strengthening its capabilities in original research, targeting new chemical entities (NCE) and novel drug development (NDD) platforms.

Although Anthem started operations as a contract research organization with a comprehensive medicinal chemistry vertical, it is now into innovative research and is capable of providing customers a value added idea which will help them start a project. "The business model in life sciences, known as DRAP, was conceived on our customers insistence," Ajay Bharadwaj, chief executive officer, Anthem BioSciences told Pharmabiz.

Anthem is now transforming itself into a dependable discovery service company which can generate drug target hits, transform hits to leads, optimize leads to developable drug candidates against known or clients targets.

By partnering with companies, Anthem can not only add value but quickly ramp up the research to a stage where it opens promising business opportunities for its customers, he added.

The company, which was incepted in mid-2006, started operations in early 2007 to offer discovery, chemistry-biology synthesis and manufacture of compounds from milligram to kilogram scale required for proof of concept and pre-clinical toxicity studies.

In the last 8 months, Anthem has managed to earn a positive response from its 35 clients from developed markets who comprise 10 of the top 20 global pharma companies in the fine chemicals and boutique bio-pharma segment,'' informed Bharadwaj.

The facility at the Bommasandra Industrial Area off Hosur-Bangalore road is spread over five acres with a full-fledged research and development lab supported by advanced analytical studies and a GMP pilot plant. The cent percent Export Oriented Unit has commissioned 70 of the 140 chemical fume hoods. The remaining will be operational by June.

The company, which has a staff strength of 120, will augment its personnel to 200 before the end-of-the-year. The candidates preferred are post doctorates and many scientists from the reverse brain drain pool are also sought after. Almost 15 percent of its personnel are PhDs and the minimum qualification required for these hi-end research efforts is a Master's degree.

In order to support outsourcing of research, the Union Budget 2008 has offered a weighted deduction of 125 per cent on any payment made to companies engaged in R&D. Currently Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's, Piramal Healthcare Ltd. and Glenmark are engaged in the New Drug Development. "Anthem is now looking to capitalize on this announcement as a future business strategy," stated Bharadwaj.