| Tata declined to comment on whether the group will
be re-entering the pharma industry. |
| |
| The Tata group is considering an entry into the
areas of bio-tech applications in the pharmaceutical
industry and drug research. |
| |
| Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata told Business Standard in an
interview, “In the areas of bio-tech applications in the
pharmaceuticals industry and in the area of drug
research, there is considerable opportunity for us which
we are indeed looking at today.” |
| |
| Asked whether the group would be re-entering the
pharmaceuticals industry, Tata replied: “I think at this
point in time I would like to reserve comment on that.”
|
| |
| Earlier in the interview, Tata was asked whether he
regretted the group having exited the textiles and
pharmaceuticals industries. |
| |
| “I don’t regret (exiting) the textile industry
because I don’t think we could have carried through the
period that companies went through. Pharmaceuticals I do
regret — I feel pharmaceuticals was an area that we
exited too quickly,” he said. |
| |
| The Tata group sold Merind Ltd and Tata Pharma, a
Merind subsidiary, to Wockhardt in the late 1990s. It
also exited Searle, a joint venture between the Tata
group’s Rallis India and GD Shaw. |
| |
| In the biotechnology field,
Tata Industries now has
a small stake in the Bangalore-based
Avestha
Gengraine,
a biotech firm founded by
Villoo
Morawala
Patell. Rallis
was also planning a foray into biotechnology but shelved
the plan. |
| |
| Tata Consultancy Services has a life sciences and
health care practice. |
| |
| In life sciences, it provides IT solutions in the
area of clinical trials and US FDA compliance
requirements, while in health care, it provides hospital
management solutions.
|