Waters India is now is aggressively pursuing opportunities to expand its proteomics business in the country. With the bio pharma sector contributing 70 per cent of $2.5 billion Indian biotech industry revenues in 2008, there is a major thrust for the research and development of biosimilars and bio-generics using proteins and peptides. Research institutes from CCMB, ICGB, NII to IISc and NCBS along with bio pharma majors like Biocon, Avesthagen, Intas, Biological Evans, Wockhardt, Serum Institute, Dr Reddy's are now looking at investing in advanced lab instruments and equipment for protein characterization to accelerate protein database searches and reduce false identification rates only to enhance the potential for protein identification and quantification.

"Proteomics is the way forward for companies. We are gearing up to generate substantial growth with our suite of solutions, Kochu Shankar, general manager Waters India told Pharmabiz.

Waters has systems for the protein purification and isolation using chromatography method to conduct structural studies. These include ultra performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS) system, Synapt MS and MALDI Synapt High Definition MS that help identify more peptides-proteins with greater sequence coverage and statistical accuracy. The systems are supported with quality control standards, to ensure reproducible operation and consistent results.

According to Dr Gopal Vaidyanathan, general manger, applications, Waters India, Proteomics is the science that deals with the complexity of the protein world. It helps to understand the diseases and arrive at therapeutics. There is a huge interest to look at large molecules for the development of protein based therapies by large global pharma players and Indian bio-pharma majors. The technology is complicated and duplicating is not easy. However, there has been considerable success with monoclonal antibodies (MAb) drugs developed from protein based sequencing. The Indian proteomics market is young but holds immense potential.

"Our package of solutions in proteomics helps to accelerate and improve the quality of laboratory analysis with the purpose of advancing research and reducing time-to-market. Some of leading global customers for Waters in the segment are Wyeth, Amgen, Novartis and AstraZeneca," he added.

The estimated global market size of proteomics is pegged at $8 billion. Leading players set to offer their instrumentation in the segment are Waters, Agilent, Brucker and ABI besides a host of small companies in Japan.

There is considerable encouragement from the Union government's department of science & technology (DST) and the department of biotechnology (DBT) with a dedicated fund allocation for proteomics research to support institutes and industry which are studying the characteristics of various proteins and peptides.

Waters also has a dedicated lab for proteomics and will augment its team. There are continuous training programmes for companies to maximize from its expertise and offering, said Dr. Vaidyanathan. A third intensive training in proteomics held between June 30 and July 2 at Bangalore for industry and institutes, had notable experts Prof, Simon J Gaskell, vice president, research, school of chemistry, University of Manchester and Prof. Robert J Beyon, director, Protein Foundation Centre, University of Liverpool, UK conduct the course.

By 2011, with many drugs going off patent, biosimilars and bio generics will have a huge market opportunity. Going by the domination of proteomics research activities in India, Waters intends to make an impact with its package of proteomics solutions to garner significant market share, informed Shankar.