Qiagen Invests $2 Million in China Firm: India Organizations Push for Growth

Netherlands-based reagent giant Qiagen said on Monday that it will acquire Beijing-based and privately held Tianwei Times, a 50-employee supplier of nucleic acid sample preparation products, for approximately $2 milllion in cash. The acquisition is pending Chinese government approval. The acquisition expands Qiagen's China presence, which includes an office in Shanghai and a distribution agreement with Gene Company.

Kapil Siba, India's minister for science and technology, said yesterday in New York that the country will establish new approval proceedures to encourage the creation of biotechnology parks in the country as catalysts for technology development and ultimately commercialization.

Sibal said India needs to establish institutes of excellence and to invest in research. "The biggest challenge before us is that we don't have the faculty for that. It will take some years to develop that," he said, according to an article posted on the WebIndia123 website.

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Meantime, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry issued a report that said the Indian pharameceutical industry will have to step up R&D activities substantially and expand its base of patented products, according to an article published in The Hindu newspaper Monday.

The report -- ‘Competitiveness of the Indian phamaceutical industry in the new product patent regime’ -- said India's pharma companies could create a $14 billion market for themselves by expanding contract research facilities. The report suggested extending a deduction of 150 percent of R&D expenses made by the companies to encourage more investment and suggested replication of the US-model allowing universities to develop as centers of excellence and to share in wealth creation from the commercialization of technologies.

A recent paper in The New England Journal of Medicine pointed out the potential for conflicts of interest in the funding of medical research at US universities. According to the paper, two thirds of this research at the country's 122 accredited medical schools is funded by industry. Some 107 responded to questions in a study led by Michelle Mello of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study found that a large majority of medical schools said they would not enter into contracts that would allow companies to edit research articles or suppress negative results. However, half said would allow companies to draft research papers, while nearly 25 percent would let them provide the data.

Three-fourths of the respondents said they had disputes over payment after a contract was signed, and 17 percent argued over access to data.

For the New Biology Economy, this study reflects the change in basic research in this country, which is now conducted largely by academia. Financial constraints really no longer allow most companies to engage in basic, basic research, especially in the life sciences sector. Generally, companies today provide the D part of the R&D equation, and really serve to develop products for commercialization. That's why there is a growing emphasis on M&A and tech transfer -- to feed product pipelines.