The Hyderabad-based Shanta Biotechnics is among several biotech companies that have committed to setting up units in the Lucknow Biotech Park, being promoted by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Shanta will be setting up a unit for diagnostics products.

Shanta Biotechnics, the first Indian company to manufacture and market recombinant DNA vaccine for Hepatitis-B and also the first to manufacture interferon (branded Shanferon) indigenously, has already set up a subsidiary in Chennai, which recently launched Shanviv, a tonic for children.

The decision of Shanta to set up a unit in Lucknow is another major setback of Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park in Hyderabad. Major biotech companies in Hyderabad are shying away from the park.

The DBT is investing Rs 10 crore in creating infrastructure and common scientific facilities in the Lucknow Biotech Park, while the government of Uttar Pradesh has allotted 8 acres of land for the project. According to Dr Manju Sharma, Secretary, DBT, who was in Hyderabad recently, small and medium entrepreneurs involved in the production of bio-fertilisers, herbal plant extracts and several industries in Uttar Pradesh have evinced keen interest in taking up space in the park which will become fully operational by the end o 2004. While Shanta will be setting up a unit for diagnostics products, the New Delhi-based CREST Biotech will set up a processing unit for sugarcane waste.

The DBT’s first biotech park in Chennai, started a few years ago, is run mostly by women. The success of this initiative has prompted DBT to extend the task to different regions, according to Dr Manju Sharma.