AstraZeneca India Pvt Ltd (AZ) plans to open part of its new process PR&D facility before year-end. The facility is located next to the three year old discovery R&D facility in Hebbal, which is dedicated to finding a cure for Tuberculosis. A focus area of the $12 million facility will be New Chemical Entities (NCEs). The PR&D facility will be fully functional in early 2007 with 50 scientists working on the research process across a range of several disease areas.

According to Sudhir Nambiar, director, AstraZeneca PR&D Bangalore, process research towards NCEs represents cutting edge research and is significantly different from generic process development that is commonly followed elsewhere in India by most pharmaceutical companies.

This state-of-the-art laboratory will be among four of AstraZeneca's Process R&D facilities located at UK, Sweden and US. The company's research strategy is to identify new compounds that have a potential for new drug development for critical diseases and is also a critical component of the AstraZeneca Plc drug discovery programme.
PR&D scientists design the route and processes ("recipes") that enable the manufacture of the "active ingredient" (the compound that affects the disease). They deliver the active ingredient to support all development work and if the compound is successful in development, PR&D transfers the commercially viable and safe "recipe" to manufacturing.

The PR&D lab will complement and accelerate the tuberculosis research. In addition it would also be associated with the parent company's global research projects to help innovate and optimise pathways to candidate drugs belonging to other therapeutic classes, stated Nambiar.

In India, AstraZeneca's presence includes AstraZeneca India Pvt Ltd. (AZIPL), an integrated part of the AstraZeneca R&D network mainly focused on TB research; and AZPIL, the marketing company, with interests in six major therapeutic areas: Cardiovascular, Oncology, Critical Care, CNS (Local Anaesthesia), Maternal Healthcare and Respiratory. Its manufacturing unit conforming to WHO current Good Manufacturing practices (cGMP) is located at Yelahanka, Bangalore.