Avesthagen Limited has inked pact with VTT Technical Research Centre, Finland to conduct product-based research projects in Theranostics. This is a process of diagnostic therapy for individual patients to test for possible reactions in new medication.

VTT intends to develop novel diagnostic products. In addition, the research will give special emphasis on the design and fabrication of diagnostic chips to develop molecular diagnostic kits that would be developed in line with a range of biosimilars for the same purpose.

With this partnership, Avesthagen along with VTT will conduct research for developing novel functional foods that have a direct impact on preventive health care by targeting major lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension and bone related disorders. Leveraging Avesthagen's expertise in the systems biology approach in functional foods, VTT would like to initially focus on development of novel diagnostic tools for Theranostics.

On signing the Memorandum of Understanding, Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, founder & CMD, Avesthagen said, "This alliance with Finland is yet another milestone. In our quest to marry life sciences and technology we have reached out to VTT as partners since their domain knowledge will help us create new horizons."

The projects will be carried out between the two organizations and will extend to other projects from Finland and /or other countries.

According to Dr Hannu Lampola, vice president, Business Solutions, Biotechnology, VTT, both the companies shared an interest in theranostics, personalized medicine and functional foods. We are keen to establish a long-term alliance with Avesthagen in order to be able to develop and commercialize new solutions in this rapidly growing area.