The Hyderabad-based Sipra Labs Ltd, one of the fast growing Contract Research Organizations (CRO) in India, entered into agreements with a number of overseas companies for developmental studies and development of pharmaceutical dosage forms.



The company, which has a US FDA approved facility, signed agreements with Israel-based Novatide and Biomass, and a couple of companies based in Singapore and Turkey. The agreement inked with Novatide and Biomass is for developmental studies and that with the Turkish company is for dosage form development. However, it has declined to provide details of the Singapore-based and Turkey–based companies.



Talking to Pharmabiz, Dr V Satyanarayana, managing director, Sipra Labs, said, “Several overseas companies are visiting our facilities and we have entered into agreements with a few of them recently. However, our main focus is domestic market with bioavailability (BA) and bioequivalence (BE) studies as major strength.”



The company, with over 700 firms in its client list, is aiming to increase revenue from the current Rs.22 crore to Rs.40 crore in the next one year. Domestic market contributes 80 per cent of its revenue, while inter national business generates 20 per cent. The company said that several leading domestic as well as overseas companies are in its client list. Dr Satyanarayana said that the growth of domestic pharmaceutical industry and the exploration of new geographical areas by Indian drug manufacturers provide good opportunities to companies like his.



The company is planning to focus on the biopharmaceutical sector, as it occupies 20 per cent of the domestic pharmaceutical industry and is neglected by several players. It set up a separate biotechnology laboratory facility for the biopharmaceutical industry to offer services such as hormone testing, protein purification etc.



The company completed six phase I studies for products of various Indian companies. Elaborating on the same, Satyanarayana said that increasing the dosage forms of existing molecules also comes under the phase I studies. It has a bed capacity of 12 beds for the phase I trails.



The company is set to open a beagle dog breeding facility in Hyderabad by April next year. The facility set up with an investment of Rs.18 crore, with 50 per cent of the funding provided by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) as a loan. The facility, approved by Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision on Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), will be doing beagle dogs breeding and experimentation.