The Hyderabad-based Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), an associate institute of the University of Hyderabad and a not-for-profit institution, is all set to exploit the opportunities available in the pharmaceutical industry, including drug discovery and development.

In February of this year, the Institute promoted a company, COSMIC (Contract Services in Medicinal and Innovative Chemistry), to provide Research and Development (R&D) support to enhance the medicinal and computational chemistry efforts of global pharma, biotechs, research institutes and academic research centres. The company is already doing some work for several well-known national as well as international companies. It is also doing some contract work for the pharmaceutical companies. ILS uses the revenue generating through COSMIC for its survival and has achieved self-sustenance.

In an interview with Pharmabiz, Prof Javed Iqbal, director of Institute of Life Sciences, said, “Now we have created a very unique kind of institute, which is the first of its kind in the country. At present there is not much interaction between industry and academia and we are trying to bridge the gap. As we have people from both academia and industry, we are trying to build a hybrid model. In this year we promoted a company, COSMIC, and we use the money generated through it for our survival. We have 40 scientists with COSMIC, all of them have left their jobs with leading biotech companies in the country to join us”

In another significant development, the institute has recently entered into an agreement with the US-based Lonza. As per the agreement both the companies will be collaborating tin the area of stem cell research. It is also in the process of discussion with a Multi-National Company (MNC) to set up a research centre for Dengue fever. As per the plans, the MNC will provide ILS all support for dengue research. However, Prof Javed Iqbal has refused to reveal more on the development as it is yet to sign the agreement. It is also in the process to enter tie-up with two-three international firms in the coming months.

Scientists from the institute have submitted 27 projects on various topics to government agencies like Department of Biotechnology (DBT) this year and all of them were approved. It has also submitted a proposal in partnership with the University of Hyderabad to the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India to set up Drug discovery and Pharmaceutical Research.

Commenting on the recognition of it as an associate institute by the University of Hyderabad, Prof Javed Iqbal said that the University of Hyderabad will grant PhD degree to the students of ILS. The students will be selected y a team comprising scientists from ILS and those from University if Hyderabad. However, after the selection ILS scientists will guide them at the ILS campus.