Indian firms agree drug discovery accord

Biotechnology firm Avesthagen, a specialist in systems biology and bioinformatics, has entered into a drug discovery collaboration with fellow Indian company, contract research organization Manipal Acunova. The partnership will focus on the development of new drugs and validation of a range of molecular diagnostics kits for the health care industry.

Avesthagen explained that the collaboration will employ the firms' respective expertise in drug development, clinical research and regulatory matters, thereby creating an integrated platform capable of spanning early discovery to product launch. The Bangalore-headquartered group added that this approach would expedite the development process, enabling promising drugs to reach the market more quickly.

Under the terms of the deal, financial details of which were not provided, the companies will jointly own all data, samples, resulting products and intellectual property rights that are created during the agreement.