The Rs 1055-crore Sun Pharmaceuticals will be doubling its R&D team strength by the end of 2005. India's fifth largest pharmaceutical company in terms of turnover and sales volume, Sun Pharmaceuticals has 390 scientists in its two R&D sites located in Mumbai and Baroda at present.

According to the expansion plan, the company will add 150 scientists in the Baroda research centre, where 325 people are working at present. In Mumbai centre, the company will recruit another 60 scientists in addition to the existing 65 member team.

The Baroda R&D group would concentrate on projects in the area of NCE and NDDS. This 16-acre campus with 200,000 sq ft research area has labs in new drug discovery chemistry, pharmacology/ molecular biology, toxicology, and related skills and support areas, in addition to process chemistry and formulation development.

The Mumbai center with 65 scientists work on dosage forms for the developed markets as well as new drug delivery systems. As many as 14 ANDAs (permissions for marketing in the US) have been received for based on this work. This team also works on projects for European approval. Recently, additional 50,000sq ft research area have been added in a new building to expand the capability at this centre, and 60 more scientists will be recruited for this facility.

The company, which has a commitment of Rs 150 crore for its R&D initiative during the current and next financial year, would increase the research team strength to 800 in a phased manner during the period. It has already provided an additional 250,000 sq ft of research floor area recently.

With the research initiative, which is currently on in the company, it expects to take up one new chemical entity (NCE) and two novel drug delivery systems (NDDS) into phase I trials by the end of 2005. The new R&D initiative would also focus on anti-allergic segment afresh in addition to the currently targeted areas of cardiovascular, oncology, and psychiatry, the official sources informed Pharmabiz.

The company, which has recently expanded its R&D infrastructure with thrust on basic research, had set up a new research centre in Mumbai to develop innovative dosage forms and generics for the developed markets in US and Europe. This centre has helped the company's US subsidiary Caraco Pharma successfully file 10 ANDAs so far, of which 5 approvals have been received. This lab is working with tight timeframes to support Caraco's new product pipeline.

The company sources said that another research campus was also being built in Baroda to work entirely on innovation based projects. In the first phase, a drug discovery initiative is taking shape in 3 specific therapy areas. "We have committed a Rs 40-core investment towards projects in new chemical entities and novel drug delivery systems," a senior official in the company said.

According to official sources, during 2002-'03 the company's R&D expenditure rose to Rs 29. 4 crore, which is about 3.4 per cent of the sales, from Rs 19.7 crore in the previous year. Currently Sun Pharma spends around 10.3 per cent of its turnover on R&D.