Biozeen, India's first Knowledge Process Outsourcing company, has invested Rs. 20 crore to set-up a full-fledged campus in an area of over 10 acres in Bangalore to offer consultancy in biopharmaceuticals and research support to customer processes, and to train qualified personnel for immediate induction into industry. The company is also planning to invest another Rs. 200 crore within the next 24 months to set up an advanced cGMP laboratory.

KPO is driven largely by economies of scale in terms of cost, operational efficiencies and access to a trained workforce. Biopharmaceutical ventures in India which had been sourcing expertise from US, UK and Europe can now capitalize on Biozeen's consulting and engineering services in biologics and biopharmaceuticals, Cherian Philip, co-founder and chairman, Biozeen: Bangalore Biotech Labs told Pharmabiz. He said the funds for expansion would be generated partly through promoter equity and through a small debt component.

Biozeen is now a single source of know-how for bio-pharma companies in basic and detailed engineering services, project management, process engineering, equipment design, automation, commissioning and validation from concept to commissioning.

"We intend to duplicate the success of the information technology sector in biotechnology. Many national and international projects are on stream proving Biozeen's reliability and resourcefulness. In the area of research, Biozeen is a facilitator for technology scale-up and improving efficiencies of the processes for customers," he said.

A logical extension of Biozeen was its backward integration efforts in human resource development primarily to bridge the gap between the industry and the academia through several flexible short-term and a one year course.

"The current manpower is not suitable to be deployed at biopharmaceutical plants. The training of human resources is for captive and industry employment. In this connection, we are also actively associated in campus recruitments and has teamed-up with the industry to offer trained candidates," said Dr. Anil Paul Kariath, president, consulting and training, Biozeen.

The short-term five-day courses on Microbial Fermentation and Animal Culture for Monoclonal Antibody production will provide an insight into the field of Biopharmaceuticals providing those intending to enter this field, as career guidance. The year-long course on Biopharmaceutical Production and Engineering, which commenced in April '06, has 20 students. The training module covers microbiology, microbial fermentation, animal cell culture, downstream processing, sterilization, filtration and sterile techniques, CIP, Biopharmaceutical Facility Engineering, Process Equipment Design, Process Equipment Automation, CAD for bioprocess engineering, PLC programming and automation and Regulatory aspects and documentation.

An added advantage for students at Biozeen is the exposure to cGMP compliant labs equipped with latest equipment, mammalian cell culture- microbial fermentation plant with upstream-downstream facilities, seed production lab, bioreactor, purification unit, clean room etc., supported with a qualified faculty.

A team of bio pharmaceutical engineers and founders of Sartorius India, founded Biozeen, which commenced its operations in 2006.