JP Morgan and AIG have infused Rs 400 crore and became private equity partners of the Narayana Hrudayalaya Pvt Ltd, the holding company of a leading corporate cardiac care centre in Bangalore, Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Cardiac Sciences. Allegro Capital Advisors were the financial advisors on the transaction.

The cardiac major will now utilize the amount to scale up Health City project with 5,000 bed capacity in Bangalore and other cities in the country.

In Bangalore, the hospital Narayana Hrudayalaya has already a 1,000 bed cardiac facility at the Bommasandra Industrial Area spanning 26 acres. Under the health city initiative introduced three years ago which covers 100 acres to provide 5,000 beds already has a 500-bed orthopaedic and accident and trauma care hospital project 'Sparsh', the first phase of it which is already commissioned. A 300 bed centre for ophthalmic 'Narayana Nethralaya and a research laboratory Thrombosis Research Institute which is developing new markers for the early detection of coronary and a vaccine to prevent heart attack.

Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has invested as an individual to set-up a 1,000 bed Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre in the Health City at Bangalore. The facility will be commissioned in June this year. No details of the stake held by Shaw into the project was disclosed.

For the Health City Project, Narayana Hrudayalaya is teaming up with the state governments in the country. "From Bangalore, we will move on to Kolkatta , where Narayana Hrudayalaya has received an agreement for 25 acres from the Andhra government which allocated 20 acres at Hyderabad, Rajasthan at Jaipur with 45 acres", stated Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, managing director, Narayana Hrudayalaya.

While 1,000 beds of the total 5,000 beds planned under the Health City initiative will take off in June at Bangalore, Narayana Hrudayalaya is looking completing the entire project within five years. The focus at the project is for all diseases but plans are firmed up to have a dedicated facility for Women and Child care in Bangalore, informed Dr. Shetty.

The association of Biocon with Narayana Hrudayalaya is from 2004 when the Arogya Raksha Yojana Trust was formed. The Trust comprised Narayana Hrudayalaya and Biocon Foundation which launched the Arogya Raksha Yojana (ARY), a unique healthcare scheme for rural India. The scheme was in collaboration with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Private Limited. "While Narayana Hrudayalaya is gearing up to provide affordable drugs, Biocon is developing cost-effective and efficacious drugs like Insugen for diabetes and BIOMAb EGFR for head and neck cancer. There are several more affordable drugs for the masses in the pipeline," stated Shaw.