January 16, 2002
Source: The Economic Times
Avesthagen ties up with AstraZeneca

Avetha Gengraine Technology, the Bangalore-based integrated biotech and bioinformatics company, has tied up with pharma major AstraZeneca for drug discovery program in tuberculosis (TB).

According to the company's Founder and- CEO Dr. Villoo Morawala Patell, the company has also entered into strategic tie-up with International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to Provide supportive services in genomics. To facilitate scaling up of the seed-for-food and plant-for-medicine operations and further strengthening of the genomics, bioinformatics and systems biology capabilities. The company has appointed Kotak Mahindra and KPMG as global advisors for Its second round of funding aimed at raising $ 10 million.

Incidentally, Avesthagen is the first biotech venture where the Tata group has taken a stake and the present stakeholders also include ICICI and Global Trust Bank. The project with ICRISAT is aimed at developing improved crop varieties and will translate into definite intellectual property rights (IPRs) for both the parties, she said. The company has also recently become the first Company in the entire south east Asian region to offer globally accepted testing and certification for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), through a global alliance with the US based Genetic ID.

"This tie-up makes India the only country in Asia after Japan to certify GMO testing and gives thrust to Indian agriculture and food processing industry which would gain access to markets that were beyond reach", said Dr Sarasija Padmanabhan, group-leader, IPR issues, Avestha Gengraine Technology.