US-based Saint Life Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, the pharmaceutical R&D outsourcing company (PRO) has finalised the design and infrastructure of its state-of-the-art laboratory scheduled to come up in Bangalore on a KIADB (Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board) land in Whitefield in the outskirts of Bangalore. The construction of the facility which spans over an area of 83,000 sq.ft. is expected to begin in April 2003 at an estimated project cost of Rs. 30 crore. The company has set-up its core management headed by Dr. Anita Mehta, as the chief scientific officer.

The project, which comprises of three blocks: corporate, R&D and safety evaluation labs is expected to be completed in mid-2005 for which 150 scientists will be hired. “It will be a 'mirror image' of a research and development facility in a pharma company abroad, Nidhi Devanur, founder chairman, Saint Life Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories told pharmabiz.com

The first phase of the project, which starts in April 2003, will be ready in September 2003. This 8,000 sq.ft. building will have medicinal and analytical chemistry labs where 16 scientists will begin work. In June 2003, the second phase will begin for labs like pharmacology, microbiology, toxicology, formulations, computation and animal house.

The business model is to create biology-chemistry labs and integrate the two sciences to offer pre-clinical R&D services to global life science majors, informed Devanur.

Saint Life will offer Hit/Lead identification, optimisation & candidate selection, computer-aided drug design, medium throughput assay development, analytical method, development, route selection and process development, delivery of ~ 1kg research regulatory material, formulation development as an adjunct to drug discovery, pre-clinical pharmacokinetic evaluation, exploratory and regulatory toxicology, In-vivo efficacy studies in small animals and Research Reports directly incorporated into IND filing package. There will be no strategic focus on internal IP (intellectual property) generation, he said.

The extensive market research studies have proved the potential of the R&D market, which was valued in 2002 to be around $10 billion and projections for 2010, is $122 billion (in-house and outsourcing research). Out of this the outsourcing research market size is $32 billion. While the outsourcing market is registering a 11 per cent growth those in the small and medium size are growing at 20 per cent.

The project is being funded by a public sector bank that will chip in 66 per cent of total cost and the remaining amount is sourced from high net worth individuals in the US, said Devanur. We are looking for a strategic alliance in India with a non-pharma corporate major who is already in the business of outsourcing to give a fillip the business.

India and particularly Bangalore is shortlisted for the facility because of its intellectual base and low cost of operation. The average expenditure incurred by pharma-biotech companies abroad for research in chemical design, toxicology and pharmacology studies is $250million. “Our infrastructure and human resources will provide the dual advantage of working on several projects and achieve faster findings, he pointed out.

In the next four years, Saint Life expects to have a turnover of $60 million with net assets worth $10 million and an annual revenues earnings to the tune of $10 million.