Bangalore based Avesthagen, and bioMerieux, the French diagnostic giant, have formed an alliance on Tuberculosis. The companies will together develop within two years a diagnostic kit based on the Affymetrix gene chip technology.

The multi-million deal was signed by Dr. Villoo Morawala Patell, CEO and Founder of Avesthagen, Dr. Christophe Merieux, CSO of bioMerieux, and Dr. Pascal Vincelot, Managing Director of bioMerieux India, in Lyon, France, on June 27, 2003.

The second deal concluded in the first week of July, is a Population Genomics study with Imperial College, London. The project focuses on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), a generalized autoimmune disease. Avesthagen will utilize the established genetic predisposition to SLE to identify variants that contribute to the pathogenesis and/or prognosis of this disease. The lack of a detailed understanding of disease pathogenesis hampers the development of new therapeutics. Elucidating the genetic basis of these syndromes will provide new targets for treatment as well as prognostic markers, which could be valuable in diseases with such a broad clinical phenotype.

Avesthagen has many such projects in the pipeline and is gearing itself for the total convergence of diagnostics, food and pharma sectors with pointers at population genetics and personalized medicine. Avesthagen is also growing organically through internal discovery and development of new phytotherapeutic products.