Gilead Sciences, an American biotechnology company from California, will soon establish its first plant in the newly established ‘Pharma City’ near Hyderabad in Telangana.

Gilead Sciences, founded in the year 1987, has been doing research and development of various drugs. Primarily the company has been concentrating on antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and influenza.

Earlier last year, the Telangana government had taken the initiative to establish a mammoth Pharma City spread over an area of 11,000 acres at Mucherla village of Ranga Reddy district in Telangana. The newly established Pharma City is expected to be developed in to an integrated pharma zone on the lines of international standards and is expected to accommodate pharma university, pharma and biotechnology research institutions, manufacturing industries along with residential complexes for the employees.

After more than 15 months of announcement of Pharma City, Gilead is the first biotechnology company that has come forward to establish its centre her. Recently, representatives of Gilead Sciences held a meeting with K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the chief minister of Telangana and expressed their interest to establish first industry at the newly announced Pharma City in Hyderabad. “We have been very much attracted to the unique and innovative industrial policy of Telangana. As part of our expansion plans, we are looking forward to establish our own research and development centre in the new Pharma City here in Hyderabad,” informed Aron Brink Worth, senior secretary of Asia region from Gilead.

As part of its new policy (TS-iPass), the state government of Telangana will accord permission for setting up of new industry within 15 days, with all clearances through single window. The government will also allot land, water and power at subsidized rates to the new establishments in the Pharma City. “Gilead Sciences has come forward to establish the first industry at Pharma City. We have asked the company representatives to submit a detailed report,” said a source from CM’s office.

The Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) has been bestowed with the responsibility of construction of roads, drainages, common effluent treatment plants and other facilities required for the pharmaceutical companies in the Pharma City. Initially, out of 11,000 acres about 7000 acres of land has been earmarked for the development of infrastructure facilities in the first phase of which 80 per cent of land has been developed and is ready for the companies to set up their plants, opined a source from TSIIC.

Gilead Sciences is already providing its services to leading pharma companies like Hetero Pharma and others in the state. The company which was founded in 1987 has been expanding through mergers and acquisitions from 1999 to 2015. Till date it has merged and acquired more than 13 pharma and biotechnology companies across 6 continents. The company's current commercially available products include Atripla, Complera, Emtriva, Viread, Tybost, Vitekta, Truvada, Stribild, Harvoni, Hepsera, Sovaldi, Zydelig, Letairis, Lexiscan, Ranexa, Cayston, Tamiflu, AmBisome, and Macugen.