March 28, 2002
Source: Business Line
Avestha plans AP facility

THE Bangalore-based Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt Ltd, a biotech and bioinformatics company, is planning to open a new facility in Andhra Pradesh in the near future.

"I would be interested in setting up something here in 4 to 5 months down the line", the company's Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, told Business Line.

She said she wanted to open a branch or a product here to support the ICICI Knowledge Park established by the Andhra Pradesh Government. The park needed a platform of the kind that Avestha had set up in Bangalore.

Establishment of Avestha, claimed to be the first genomic company in the country, involved an investment of $ 3 million. Of this, $ 2 million was funded through venture capital. ICICI Venture Capital, Tata Industries and Global Trust Bank were the main investors in the company.

According to Dr Patell, the future of preventive medicine would be one where food genomes together with human genomes would make nutraceuticals, functional foods. Plant derived medicine and functional foods, nutraceuticals may improve public relations for transgenic crop technology. The products can be marketed as a fresh or processed food, extract or purified substance or as a medicine.

Principally an agro company, she said Avestha was moving into plant prototypes. The company was into discovery of nutraceuticals and plant-based drugs.