Ranbaxy Opens Drug Development Research Facility as India Looks to CRO Growth

Ranbaxy Laboratories, an India-based pharmaceutical company, in late August opened a new research center in Gurgaon, one of India's key hubs for the rapidly expanding business process outsourcing industry.

The facility, Ranbaxy said in a statement, is the company's third in the area, and will focus on new drug discovery.

The opening of this facility in an area comes as India moves to replicate in clinical research, its growth in call centers and software development.

This year, India's parliament recast patent laws to align with global standards and issued a draft document outlining a broad national strategy in biotechnology development.

Previously, India's patent laws did not protect new molecules, but did protect processes, which fueled a generic drug industry that simply reformulated drugs patented elsewhere in the world for sale there. It is widely believed that the changes in India's patent regime, which will now protect new molecules, will encourage the country's pharmaceuticals sector to begin researching and developing new drugs and to begin investing in molecular-biology tools such as microarrays and mass spectrometers.

But, despite these moves and the country's resources of a lower-cost, highly trained, English-speaking work force, India must overcome hurdles in infrastructure, culture, and the pressing needs of its poor in order to rise in the new biology economy.

A shortage of investigators may “prove to be a major pitfall for Indian CROs,” India's Express Pharma Pulse publication said this week, noting a recalcitrance for India's people to serve as “guinea pigs” for the world in an environment that has “few legal safeguards” for protection.

Still, the resources India offers are huge. And it's changing, with entrepreneurs overcoming infrastructure and cultural resistance.

Last night, the PBS show WideAngle aired a report on the BPO industry in Gurgaon, focusing on the employees of Gecis, a company founded in cooperation with General Electric. This company has had to create its own energy plan to assure operations, has a fleet of vehicles to ferry its employees to work and back, and hired a chef to create a catering service to offer meals and snacks to feed its employees 24-7.

Tags -- [India Biotechnology, Outsourcing, CROs, patents]