Anthem Biosciences, India's latest pharma-biotech start-up venture is gearing up to commission its unit consisting of GMP pilot plant, cGMP kilo lab and a full-fledged medicinal chemistry department in July this year. The facility, located off the Hosur Road in Bangalore, has a capacity of 140 chemical fume hoods and under its phase I, 70 hoods will be commissioned.

The company, which is a 100 per cent export oriented unit, will operate in the area of contract research services and provide expertise in early stage drug discovery and small scale GMP manufacturing to clients which are primarily large fine chemicals and boutique bio-pharma companies, Ajay Bharadwaj, chairman and managing director, Anthem Biosciences told Pharmabiz. Bharadwaj was former president, Biocon Limited.

The facility includes CGMP Kilo Lab for kilo research quantities and GMP Pilot Plant for larger quantities required for proof of concept/pre-clinical toxicity studies. Its comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry Vertical will assist in hit/lead identification, hit to lead generation, lead optimisation and invitro biology needs of clients. "Anthem's strategy is to enhance its capabilities in the contract research service domain, which is one of the key objectives of the company," stated Bharadwaj.

Anthem was formed in July 2006 by Bharadwaj along with two former Biocon employees Dr Sambasivan Ganesh, ex CSO of Syngene and Ravindra Chandrappa, who headed chemical manufacturing at Biocon. Ganesh is the CSO of Anthem and Ravindra is the COO.

The customers of the 100per cent EoU will primarily be from developed economies. The company is already in touch with a large number of potential customers, most of whom have responded positively. And since professionals in the industry are familiar with the company's promoters, they enjoy a high degree of credibility among their target group and have already built up a good order book ahead of the launch, Bharadwaj said.

Though a large number of VCs and Private Equity players evinced interest in the company, the promoters felt they were under valuing the enterprise. And hence, taking a long term view, they decided to build the business first. Consequently, the company sought funding from State Bank of India to supplement Anthem's own funding.

With a current staff strength of 20, Anthem is building a hand picked team of accomplished scientists with proven track record and will have about 150 scientists in one year. The estimated total staff strength of the company will be around 200.