Shantha Biotechnics, a privately owned company through its US-based joint venture Shantha West Inc, has plans to start clinical tests for monoclonal antibody for lung cancer in the second half of 2001.

Shantha West, based in California, will be clinically testing the TB94 monoclonal antibody in Japan and Sweden. It will be first tested in transgenic totacco plants and extracted after purification. The transgenic tobacco plant will act as the reactor, sources said.

The purified antibody will be used in the first phase of clinical testing. Transgenic plant technology is cost-effective in production of complex human proteins for pharmaceutical applications.

Shantha West, in which Shantha Biotechnics has a 51 per cent stake, had so far developed four anti-cancer monoclonal antibodies. Shantha Biotechnics had invested $9 Million in East West Laboratories, renaming it Shantha West.

Shantha Biotechnics is also planning to float an IPO next year. The company, one of the largest biotechnology firms in the country, posted revenues of Rs 34 crore in 1999-2000.

The company is one of the major producers of recombinant DNA Hepatitis B vaccine, claiming a market share of 46 per cent in the country. Shantha has an annual capacity to produce 50 million dosages of the Hepatitis B vaccine at its plant in Hyderabad. The company had a marketing tie-up with Pfizer Overseas Inc, which is expected to increase its sales of the Hepatitis B vaccine in other countries.