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Pfizer Inc. (“PFE”) and TCG Lifesciences Limited (“TCGLS”) announce today that they have entered into a collaboration to develop a portfolio of preclinical candidate molecules in a series of discovery target programs.

TCGLS, which has a significant presence in Asia, will develop the compounds up to the nomination of preclinical candidates, encompassing medicinal chemistry, parallel medicinal chemistry, in-vitro ADME, in-vivo pharmacology, and preliminary safety and toxicology.

Pfizer will own the compounds, and TCGLS will receive research funding and will be eligible to receive research milestone payments as part of the partnership arrangement.

“We are very excited about this research collaboration. By combining Pfizer’s scientific leadership and drug discovery experience with TCGLS’ project management and scientific capabilities, we continue to expand our discovery capabilities and increase the likelihood and speed of developing new medicines for patients in need,” saidRod MacKenzie, senior vice president, Head of Worldwide Research, PharmaTherapeutics, Pfizer Inc. “This investment further strengthens our R&D partnership network in Asia and its emerging market countries, which is an important component of our R&D strategy.”

“We are also excited to partner with Pfizer and assist them in the effort to discover a series of preclinical candidates,” said Mr. Swapan Bhattacharya, managing director, TCG Lifesciences Limited. “This agreement serves as a testament to our growing capacity and capabilities to provide high-end integrated discovery services in the global arena and to align our strategic focus with the goals of our partners.”

About Pfizer Inc: Working together for a healthier world™
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to improve health and well-being at every stage of life.  We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacturing of medicines for people and animals.  Our diversified global health care portfolio includes human and animal biologic and small molecule medicines and vaccines, as well as nutritional products and many of the world’s best-known consumer products.  Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time.  Consistent with our responsibility as the world’s leading Biopharmaceutical Company, we also collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world.  For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. To learn more about our commitments, please visit us at www.pfizer.com.

About TCG Lifesciences Limited
TCG Lifesciences Limited is a leading research services and informatics company with operations in India, Europe, Japan and the United States.  It is part of The Chatterjee Group, a global investment conglomerate headquartered in New York.  TCG Lifesciences Limited (“TCGLS”) collaborates to service the multi-disciplinary research efforts of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through its 3 units Chembiotek (Discovery Research), Clininvent (Clinical Research Solutions) & LabVantage (Enterprise Informatics). It has trust based relationships with majority of the global pharmaceutical companies.  The relationships span from specific solutions and sourcing services to integrated projects across multiple domains to complete translational research programs in the drug discovery and development space.

PFIZER DISCLOSURE NOTICE: The information contained in this release is as of January 05, 2010. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments.
This release contains forward-looking information that involves substantial risks and uncertainties about a collaboration between Pfizer and TCG Lifesciences Limited to develop preclinical drug candidates. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development; decisions by regulatory authorities regarding whether and when to approve any drug applications that may be filed for any such drug candidates as well as their decisions regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such drug candidates; and competitive developments.
A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 and in its reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K.

Media Contacts:

Rupinder Singh / Alok Das / Piyush Kant
I: Connect Enterprise
Mobile: +91-98304 40441 / +91-91637 39533 / +91-98102 52379
Email: rupisingh2001@gmail.com / alokdaspr@gmail.com / piyush@iconnectenterprise.com

Pfizer Inc.
Samantha Cummis
(212) 733-6924
Samantha.cummis@pfizer.com

Frost & Sullivan, for the first time, hosted ‘2009 India excellence in Healthcare Awards’ at Mumbai. The Event attended by the creme de la creme of the healthcare industry spotlighted world-class companies that have performed par excellence and demonstrated best practices. Recognizing the best in class, the event was held to honor the country’s premium players in the healthcare and research industry.

The F & S recognized 19 companies from the Medical Devices, Healthcare IT, Medical Imaging, Drug Discovery, Biotechnology and Clinical Diagnostics background. These companies have contributed and in the future would drive the growth of the industry through their market leadership, competitive strategies, and innovation.

Anand Rangachary, Managing Director, South Asia and Middle East, Frost & Sullivan, said, “The healthcare industry has phenomenal importance in the economic growth of any country. The primary focus of all stakeholders, including the Government, private sector across the healthcare value chain should be on increasing the scope and reach of healthcare services into India’s vast hinterland. The ‘2009 India excellence in Healthcare Awards’ is an endeavor to honor companies that have proven to be the best in class in furthering this objective.”

A 10-person jury comprising prominent Healthcare Industry experts had come together to examine the dynamics/performance of an extensive range of organizations. Our expert team followed a meticulous measurement-based methodology to select companies in South Asia for each Award category.

Recipients in the Biotech and Pharmaceuticals category:

Multinational Pharmaceutical Company of the Year – Pfizer Limited, Indian Pharmaceutical Company of the Year – Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Indian Contract Manufacturing Company of the Year – Jubilant Organosys, Indian Biotech Company of the Year – Serum Institute of India Ltd, Indian Clinical Research Organization of the Year – Veeda Clinical Research, Indian Emerging MNC Pharmaceutical Company of the Year – MSD Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd.
Indian Drug Discovery Research Organization of the Year – Chembiotek

The distinguished panel of Judges for this year’s Award ceremony:

1.Dr. Rajiv Shukla – Director Investment – Chemical & Pharma, ICICI Venture
2.Dr. Nadig Ramananda -President & Deputy Dean CREMA India
3.Mr. Ananthpadmanabhan – President – Kovai Medical Centre
4.Mr. Satyamurthy – Retd – Director, Telemedicine – ISRO
5.Dr. Sujay Prasad – Director – Anand Lab
6.Dr. MG Bhat – Consultant GI & minimal access surgery, Wockhardt Hospitals
7.Dr. Radhesh – Radiologist, Clumax Diagnostic
8.Nitin Naik – VP – Healthcare, APAC
9.Reenita Das – Sr. VP – Healthcare – APAC
10.Sandeep Sinha – Deputy Director – Healthcare – SAME
11.Nanda Kishore -Industry Manager – Healthcare – SAME

HealthHiway and IBM are the platinum partners for this year’s Excellence in Healthcare Awards.

Biospectrum, Pharma BioWorld, eHealth, DrugOne, Pharma Review, New Media and Chronicle Pharma Biz are the honorable Media Partners for the Awards.

India’s TCG Lifesciences, a research services and informatics company has extended its master services agreement with Pfizer.

TCG Lifesciences is said to have been a preferred research service provider to Pfizer primarily in the field of discovery chemistry and would now also be providing integrated research services, through its one box model. This will be covering areas like synthesis of monomer and templates, medicinal chemistry, parallel medicinal chemistry to enhance Pfizer’s drug discovery pipeline and shorten development timelines.

“A high-quality and flexible working model is critical to Pfizer’s research. Through, our strong relationships with leading Asian CROs, such as TCG Lifesciences, we are able to tap into their scientific talent pool to further the success of our research programs,” said Mr Rick Connell, Vice President, Head of External Research Solutions, Pfizer.

Mr Swapan Bhattacharya, Managing Director, TCG Lifesciences, said, “We are excited at the prospect of supporting Pfizer across the drug discovery and development value chain in an integrated manner. This development is of great importance for us as it signifies our competences in providing innovation based integrated research services from early stage discovery to kilo scale production of first in man material”.

TCG Lifesciences Limited has been conferred with ‘Excellence Award’  and its Managing Director, Swapan Bhattacharya with ‘Udyog Rattan’, by one of India’s premier research institutes ‘Institute of Economic Studies’ (IES)  for the outstanding achievements in the field of life sciences and contribution in India’s industrial development.

The awards were presented by HE B. P. Singh, Governor of Sikkim in the presence of Dr. Bhishma Narain Singh, former Governor of Tamil Nadu and Dr. G.V.G. Krishnamurthy, former Election Commissioner of India at the award ceremony in New Delhi.

Commenting on his achievement Mr. Bhattacharya said “I am honored to receive this prestigious award and I humbly accept it on behalf of the entire TCG Lifesciences family without whose dedicated and relentless team effort this achievement would not have been possible. I would like to thank IES for bestowing this honor.”

The ‘Institute of Economic Studies’ was established in 1980 by a group of economists, parliamentarians and industrialists. The organization works on studying various aspects of economy and economic development. The institute closely monitors various facets of economy and individual contribution of various companies and business leaders.

TCG Lifesciences Limited (formerly “Chembiotek Research International”) is a leading research services and informatics company with operations in India, Europe, Japan and the United States. It is part of The Chatterjee Group, a global investment conglomerate headquartered in New York. TCG Lifesciences Limited (“TCGLS”) collaborates to service the multi-disciplinary research efforts of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through its 3 units Chembiotek (Discovery Research), Clininvent (Clinical Research Solutions) & Labvantage (Enterprise Informatics).

TCGLS offers a new paradigm of cutting edge drug discovery and development platform whereby the R&D process is seamlessly transitioned from ‘bench to bedside and back’,and laboratory data easily accessed and managed across the product development lifecycle. Its relationships with the customers and collaborators span from specific solutions and sourcing services to integrated projects across multiple domains to complete translational research programs.

Mr. Bhattacharya, is a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, an M.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He was presented the Lester Cunningham Award for academic excellence at Northwestern.

Mr. Bhattacharya joined ‘The Chatterjee Group’ (TCG) in 1995 and has played a key role in expanding TCG’s investments in India, by identifying and developing opportunities, negotiating and closing transactions and monitoring investment performance. In 2001, he took the responsibility to expand TCG’s life sciences business in India and has successfully positioned TCG Lifesciences as one of the leading life sciences contract research services and informatics organization. He is also on the Board on various TCG companies. Mr. Bhattacharya is also Co-Chair of the National Biotech Committee formed by FICCI.

Kolkata, India – November 19, 2008 – Despite a global economic downturn, the only research-driven company worth its name in Eastern India looks optimistically poised. Subhra Priyadarshini analyses the TCG Lifesciences model to find out what drives this success story.

One floor of Chembiotek, a TCG Lifesciences company in Kolkata, smells distinctly of fresh fruits. “Ketones,” explains Purnendu Roy Chowdhury, who heads the analytical chemistry division. They have a brand new kiloscale synthesis lab in place. Another floor smells of freshly coated paint. Work’s in progress.

That, in essence, is the mantra for the drug discovery research and development company — ongoing growth as you smell the results in the interim.

Swapan Bhattachharya, Managing Director of TCG Lifesciences, is not too bothered about the dipping financial graphs across the world. “There would be an increase in outsourcing irrespective of the world financial crisis. In fact, contract research is going to see a surge in India since it is cheaper to outsource here than in any other part of the world,” he says.

2009 looks challenging because of the major economic slowdown that might see overseas collaborators cutting costs in every aspect of business. Collaborators will look at prioritising their projects, budgets will shrink and there would be delays in decision making. “The overall pessimistic mood might affect our operations but finally, collaborators will still have to rely on outside partners. Our operations are not as recession-prone as the rest of the industry,” he says.

Though TCG Lifesciences is not hoping to make a splash in terms of novel molecules within the next three years, it’s still looking at a 30 to 50 per cent growth year on year. The laboratory space would double to about 175, 000 sq ft in the next two years. From close to a thousand people, the scientific and technical staff strength is expected to go up to about 5000 in 2012. “We aren’t looking at new integrated projects right now. The idea is to value-add to
existing or new molecules at one place without having to shuttle them back and forth to various destinations,” he says.

So where would the success stem from? “From milestone-based growth contracts that are expected to reap dividends in the coming years. These are riskshared
deals with an upside of payments in the range of 50 million dollars. This comes with the proof of concept in humans,” Bhattachharya adds.

TCG Lifesciences has a private-public partnership in the technology area called the Centre for Genomic Application in New Delhi that has ‘done extremely well’, he says. “We have started a pilot centre and are building a larger research establishment expected to be completed soon. It started as a training module where the government put in money, we brought in the infrastructure, people and management and got our people to train,” he elaborates on the project.

The company was able to handle a lot of the academic research requirements hampered by not having access to such high powered equipment. It promoted research with academia. “Through this learning, we were connected to companies that were interested in looking at various things like why do certain medicines help a certain part of the population. These studies are moving towards the field for translational medicine, which is paramount for the future of the drug industry,” Bhattachharya explains.
Translational medicine connects basic medical research directly to patient care.

The company also has new diagnostic tools coming up, particularly in pathology. “We are looking to do a lot of new kind of collaborations,” he reveals. Currently, the revenue contribution is divided in a 40-40-20 ratio between its drug discovery services, enterprise informatics and clinical research work. Among their clients are 18 of the top 20 global pharma companies.

At a small distance from Chembiotek, which has grown from a single-storeyed longish building to a multistoreyed facility over the last few years, is their world class animal house. A young researcher showing you around the facility with immense pride takes you through the ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ corridors. “You will have noticed that the ‘dirty’ corridors are cleaner than the cleanest of labs you might have seen!” No compromise with quality, he sums up the philosophy of his workplace.

Eastern India’s romance with basic science research has been historically celebrated. Why’s it that Kolkata has not been able to retain the coveted position through the ages? Will the region bounce back with a slew of new measures planned? Nature India investigates.

Subhra Priyadarshini

In the land of Jagadish Chandra Bose, Meghnad Saha and P. C. Mahalonobis, a disturbing trend has left scientific institutions worried — that of young scientists leaving its shores for greener pastures. It isn’t surprising then that one finds Bengali surnames galore while scanning for Indian names in international publications. Neither is it just a coincidence that the scientist with the highest number of publications in this country is a Bengali (Ashoke Sen
of the Harishchandra Research Institute of Allahabad).

Why hasn’t West Bengal, or more precisely its culturally-throbbing capital Kolkata replete with scientific institutes, been able to hold back this enormous talent pool?

“The primary problem in Kolkata is its inability to retain its undergraduates,” says Jayanta Bhattacharya, dean of the academic programme at the S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Science (SNBNCBS) in Kolkata. “One look at research institutes across India and you find that they are being populated in physics, chemistry and mathematics by predominantly Bengali scientists; there is a large number of them in every leading institute, which is actually quite disproportionate to the size of the state!” he notes.

“…Their gain is our loss. But the difficulty is that we don’t know how to address this,” Bhattacharya says.

The trend of youngsters leaving Kolkata for other institutes in the country or abroad began in the eighties. The diagnosis then was: the city does not have much to offer in terms of high quality post-doctoral stints or jobs. “But on closer look it seems that the phenomenon might not be unique to Kolkata. No student wants to spend his/her whole life in one place any more. Eighteen years of Kolkata or Mumbai or Delhi is enough for a youngster to look for a change,” Bhattacharya points out. The need for change might not be a reflection on the city. At 18 there’s a strong outflow, at 21 it’s stronger. “It is unfortunate that the research institutes in Kolkata do not get their finest local quota — everyone competes for students from this region. Had all the other regions in this country been sending out good students, some of these students would be forced to remain here,” he says.

Traditionally, students opt for a good university after their bachelor degree. In the absence of lucrative options in Kolkata, the choices are limited. “The two universities – Calcutta and Jadavpur – don’t offer attractive fronts. Dilapidated labs, non-functioning equipment and roofs falling off in places – would this attract today’s world citizens who have seen better labs on the internet?” asks a researcher in a private R&D firm who opted for a U.S. lab for his masters and post-doc and came back to Kolkata for a job.

Owing to the state’s historic divorce from English, many students from the region were apprehensive about an oral examination, which they had to compulsorily take in order to get into an M.Sc course through the joint national examination earlier. The oral examination was recently done away with making the joint examination a written affair. “This has increased the student outflow from the state by the order of ten,” notes Anirban Choudhury, a researcher with an eye on education trends in the state.

Realising the crisis about seven years ago, the SNBNCBS decided to go for an integrated programme to pitch for undergraduate students. “We offer them slightly more research-oriented programmes than other institutes. Even then we have had mixed success, we don’t get the numbers we would like to,” Bhattacharya says.

The recently set up Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), however, is very optimistic of a turnaround. “There’s a large pool of very bright students who may not be articulate, suave, urbane or sophisticated but they are native intelligence, very eager to learn,” says Sushanta Duttagupta, director of IISER Kolkata. “We see a large number of our students coming from ‘apparently backward’ states like Bihar and Orissa also.”

IISER’s main strength is in the undergraduate programme. “But along with that, the undergraduate students would interact with the older students doing research,” he says.

The institute, which started its academic sessions in 2006 had 40 students in the first year, 70 in the second and 60 in the third year with an integrated 5- year programme. The idea was to integrate education with research so that undergraduate teaching is carried out alongside doctoral and postdoctoral research work. “We call it an MS programme, which is strikingly different from conventional education in our country,” Duttagupta says.

The premise is that around the age of 17 and half, students may not know of the various possibilities ahead of them or be sure of their interests. IISER gives them an inter-disciplinary exposure in the first four years after which they chose their area of interest.

The Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), one of the finest inter-disciplinary research bodies holding aloft the biological sciences flag in the predominantly physical sciences-dominated Bengal research scenario, has similar plans of grooming its own manpower.

“The postdoctoral students are often the best people to have in a research institute. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Ph. D. programme. We really plan to develop this in the future and are looking at creating a full fledged Ph. D. programme here,” says IICB director Siddhartha Roy.

As of now, IICB is home to a clutch of ‘fine quality’ researchers by virtue of a programme run on its campus by the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER). “It is wonderful to see brilliant, young people roaming around in the campus busy with a lot of interesting projects. Makes you feel there’s a lot of hope for future,” he says.

The NIPER crop has actually impressed the local industry so much so that a whole batch of medicinal chemistry researchers was taken in by Kolkata-based contract research and informatics company TCG Lifesciences. “We have a number of tie-ups with academic institutions such as IICB, IISER, the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) and the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in this region. We realise the importance of
such industry-academia links,” says TCG Lifesciences managing director Swapan Bhattachharya.

Confronted with surging demand in China and India, instrument makers are boosting local sales and service capabilities

VISIT SCIENTIFIC LABS labs in India or China, and it becomes obvious that instrumentation makers are doing major business in those countries. From Bangalore to New Delhi, and from Beijing to Chongqing, more and more labs are conducting cutting-edge pharmaceutical research, diagnosing patients, testing water and air quality, or ascertaining whether food is safe.

The labs feature sophisticated instruments from well-known manufacturers, including Agilent Technologies, Bruker, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Varian, PerkinElmer, and Beckman Coulter. As these major instrument makers enjoy a surge in their Asian business, they are busily building their sales and technical support capabilities to meet customers’ rising expectations. Asian instrument users who might once have been content with second-class treatment increasingly expect a level of attention and support from instrument companies comparable with what they offer customers in the U.S. or Europe.

“This is where it’s all happening—in Asia, and particularly in China and India,” says Syed Jafry, president of Thermo Fisher’s China operations. “Either I can be in the U.S. in a business that is growing at 2 to 3% annually, or I can be here in China, where growth is many times stronger.”

Jafry lived in China earlier in his career when he was manager of General Electric’s sensors and test measurement equipment business. He moved to Shanghai at the beginning of this year with a mandate from Thermo Fisher’s senior management to ramp up sales, service, and manufacturing capabilities in China. One of his goals is to further strengthen China’s contribution to Thermo Fisher’s global sales. Asian countries accounted for 11% of Thermo Fisher’s $10 billion in sales last year, with China being the most important contributor in the region.

Thermo Fisher is not alone in enjoying surging growth in China. Since 2004, China has been Agilent Technologies’ second largest market after the U.S. And at Beckman, Jackey Ho, president of China operations, tells C&EN that sales of his company’s diagnostics instrumentation in China will likely increase 25% this year. The Chinese market, Ho says, is a “gold mine.”

Marshak relocated to Shanghai this summer, in part because PerkinElmer wanted a senior executive there to demonstrate its commitment to China and the rest of Asia. “Even though China is still being widely discussed as an emerging country, I tend to think that it’s got beyond emerging,” he says.

According to Marshak, Chinese researchers are increasingly involved in world-class projects. “Scientists here want to have the same high-end instruments as everyone else, and they’re going to do very creative things with them just like everyone else in the world,” he says. “They are moving from manual plate readers to high-throughput screening systems; from biochemical screens to image-based, cell-based assays; from very simple confocal microscopes to very high-resolution microscopes where you can get to 1 µm or less in resolution. These things cost money, but you can get much better results.”

IT’S NOT JUST the increasing sophistication of Chinese research that is multiplying PerkinElmer’s opportunities in the country. Marshak says China is also attempting to improve its environmental and safety record. “The Chinese want to have clean water and air, as well as food products that are safe,” he says. “They’re just bringing the regulatory and oversight systems on-line to do that.” In the wake of the scandal involving melamine-tainted milk that has been unfolding in China in recent weeks, instrument makers are reminding potential customers that they have devices that can detect the contaminant.

In both China and India, Marshak expects pharmaceutical research to be a key business driver. In China, the growth is partly driven by multinational companies that are setting up research centers and partly by local firms that are starting to engage in research of their own. He expects that Chinese firms will become especially strong in natural products research.

“In the past, pharmaceutical research has focused on pure chemical compounds, looking at particularly pure receptors’ binding characteristics,” Marshak notes. “More and more, the field is turning to cell-based assays—physiological assays where one looks at the overall outcome for efficacy and safety.” He says China’s long familiarity with the medical properties of natural products could prove useful in that regard.

Likewise, the rise of the Indian pharmaceutical industry has been phenomenal, Marshak says. “In India, you find there is the combination of contract research, of being able to do clinical trials, and of the ability to do high-quality manufacturing that complies with U.S. requirements—and then they have their own new drug discovery capabilities,” Marshak says. “I think that they have the whole package, the ability to take over a lot of the global pharmaceutical industry.”

Beyond pharmaceuticals, Koos van der Steuijt, general manager of Thermo Fisher in India, sees a business opportunity in the well-documented shortcomings of India’s infrastructure. The company has instruments to serve the needs of the construction industry, such as elemental analyzers to ascertain the quality of concrete or the carbon content of steel.

“Our customers here are a healthy mix of government institutes, companies engaged in research, and industrial companies involved in infrastructure development or real estate development,” van der Steuijt says. Sales in India, he predicts, will continue to grow by “double digits.” This year, some of the company’s business lines are enjoying sales surges there as high as 40%, he notes.

In both China and India, one class of customer that has been growing fast is contract research organizations, or CROs, companies that perform research for pharmaceutical companies based in Japan or the West. Typically headed by scientists who have previously worked in industry in the West, CROs are big buyers of advanced instrumentation. Because they promise their customers speed of execution, these firms demand prompt technical support from instrument suppliers.

In Beijing, the CRO Chemizon is spending between $4 million and $5 million on scientific instruments to equip its second laboratory in the city. It already spent about $4 million so far this year to outfit its first lab, which mostly performs chemistry research. The second facility will have biological capabilities. The company’s managers are already thinking about setting up a third lab next year.

Xin Bu, Chemizon’s director of biology, says the company decided recently to spend $250,000 on a high-throughput Biomek FX liquid-handling robot from Beckman. Bu looked at competing products, but he says the deciding factor was his belief that Beckman offers the best technical support in Beijing for this type of instrument.

As to why his company decided to spend so much on a single machine, Bu says he needs equipment that generates reliable and replicable data. He figures the device is probably the first of its type ever to be installed in Beijing and costs more in China than it would in the U.S. Although Chemizon goes to international suppliers for high-end instruments, Bu knows many fine Chinese suppliers of basic lab equipment, like refrigerators, incubators, and shakers. “The prices are very good,” he notes.

At BioDuro, another fast-growing drug discovery services firm in Beijing, Chief Executive Officer John V. Oyler laments that the quality of technical support in China lags behind what is available in the U.S. Firms such as Agilent or Beckman may have a substantial presence in the country, “but when a manufacturer of some particular type of instrumentation has only sold $500,000 worth of equipment in China to date, it’s unrealistic that they would have the same level of technical support that they offer in Cambridge, Mass.”

When BioDuro is doubtful of a supplier’s ability to service a machine rapidly, Oyler says, it buys two or three—even if they cost as much as $40,000 apiece—in order to have spare capability when a device is down.

Another major difference between China and the U.S., Oyler says, is that equipment financing is generally unavailable in China. Partly as a result of China’s weak regulation of property rights, he says, the law restricts repossession of equipment if a buyer falls behind on payments. In the U.S., equipment suppliers will provide financing to buyers and will repossess the equipment if payments aren’t made.

Thermo Fisher’s Jafry says that although his company can provide financing to buyers in China, members of his sales force are not sufficiently aware of the company’s capabilities in that area. Still, he warns that financing is not as simple as in the U.S. because it is difficult to obtain reliable financial data on potential Chinese customers. In any case, he says, Chinese buyers have generally not shown much interest in financing from Thermo Fisher, preferring to work with local banks or pay in cash.

Beckman’s Ho sees limited potential in China for financing services. Even if customers were interested and companies had recourse when buyers fall behind in their payments, the fact is there isn’t a market for secondhand instruments in China. Leasing instead of selling equipment might be doable, he says, but only for instruments that require a steady supply of consumables.

In India, instrument manufacturers don’t provide financing except on a very short-term basis, says Swapan Bhattacharya, manager of the Calcutta-based CRO Chembiotek. When buying equipment from abroad, buyers in India pay by letters of credit. The equipment manufacturers draw down these letters of credit only after they have delivered and installed the instruments.

Since 2001, Chembiotek has expanded from a 20-employee CRO focused on chemistry services to 1,000 people who provide drug discovery services ranging from early discovery work to clinical trials. Bhattacharya says both the company’s sales and its instrumentation budget are increasing at about 70% annually.

Bhattacharya says Chembiotek has enjoyed perfectly adequate levels of technical support from its chemistry instrument suppliers. But it’s a different story in biology, where for the past three years Chembiotek has been expanding its contract research capabilities. “In several cases, biology instrumentation suppliers have had to fly in their technical people from overseas to take care of our problem,” he says.

In the case of fluorometric imaging plate readers (FLIPRs), machines that cost $600,000 each, Bhattacharya says Chembiotek purchased two when it really needed just one because it expected slow technical support from the supplier. Not having a backup system, he says, could have led to the loss of a key customer if the FLIPR had broken down. He adds that Chembiotek’s biology business has since grown to the point where both FLIPRs are regularly in use on projects presenting various degrees of urgency.

Although Thermo Fisher does not make FLIPRs, van der Steuijt acknowledges that his company has had to step up its technical support in India in recent years. As he recalls, the effort followed a decision top management made two years ago to better meet customers’ expectations in India, a market into which Thermo Fisher expects to sell $125 million worth of products and services this year. It is now rare for Thermo Fisher to fly in an expert to fix a technical problem, van der Steuijt says. Indeed, he says, the company even has enough local talent to train new technical support staff.

WITH THE APPEARANCE of so many well-equipped labs in Asia trying to smoothly operate all sorts of temperamental instruments, PerkinElmer’s Marshak sees service as a business opportunity. In developed markets such as the U.S., PerkinElmer offers OneSource, a service through which the company sells and maintains instruments made by many manufacturers. He expects the company to offer OneSource in China once it further builds its business infrastructure and staff base.

Ho, the Beckman executive, perceives the service business as an uphill battle because Chinese customers do not value it. Customers in China, he observes, instinctively regard human labor as something that is essentially free.

“Buyers expect that when you sell them an instrument, you have to maintain it for life,” Ho says. It’s especially true at Chinese research institutes, where scientists have difficulty obtaining funds for repairing broken equipment. But offering technical support is expensive—Beckman’s engineers are usually university graduates who have received training overseas—so the service can’t be given away, he notes.

More important than introducing new services, Ho believes, is that instrumentation companies need to first strengthen and deepen their pool of management talent. Even though Beckman has been active in China for the past 30 years, he figures it will still take more time to develop a corps of senior managers who are Chinese nationals. Ho is a native of Hong Kong and still lives there. His top management colleagues in China are either from Hong Kong or Taiwan.

At the other major instrumentation firms, managers in China are usually people who have been sent from headquarters, Ho adds. “It shows that the instrumentation industry still has a shortage of management resources in China,” he says. “At present, we overpay for young professionals who are looking for fast promotions and are hopping around from job to job.”

At Thermo Fisher, Jafry admits that staff turnover is a problem—and one he is committed to fixing. Jafry sees little turnover on Thermo Fisher’s management team but is concerned about younger workers. In his view, job hoppers do not realize that they may be sacrificing overall job satisfaction for a higher salary.

“I think it helps to encourage people to think about not just the financial aspect but the longer term growth and the type of respect that you get in the organization from your peers and your managers,” Jafry says. The company has roughly 1,000 employees in China now, about half of whom are in manufacturing.

PerkinElmer’s Marshak says employees leave their jobs in China and elsewhere for a variety of personal reasons. But one of the ways firms can keep employees motivated is by constantly coming up with new and exciting products. “We make sure that we have new instruments constantly being launched,” he points out, “and through that, employees feel that they are on the forefront of technology.”

Jafry wants Thermo Fisher to take this concept one step further and boost its product development capabilities in China. “We need to start leveraging the technology talent that is growing in China,” he says.

Most of Thermo Fisher’s R&D is done in the U.S. and Europe, he says, primarily because the company is worried about China’s intellectual property (IP) protection. The concerns are exaggerated, he believes. Jafry notes that companies like Motorola, General Electric, and General Motors employ thousands of people in product development in China and have been doing so for several years. “If we continue to just latch on to the IP risk, we will never do anything here,” he says.

Thermo Fisher and other instrumentation makers will have a lot to do for many years in China and India, Jafry believes. This is simply because scientific human resources are now in abundant supply in these countries. According to a paper published last year by Issues in Science & Technology, China graduates nearly four times as many engineers annually as does the U.S.

“China and India are producing so much of the science and technology talent, and now that they are setting up those R&D centers, within the next 10–15 years this is where most of the innovation will happen,” Jafry says. It’s a profound shift, but one that, by all appearances, the instrumentation industry is embracing.

TCG Lifesciences Limited has commissioned its cGMP kilo scale synthesis laboratory in Kolkata at ‘Chembiotek,’ its discovery research services business unit. This represents a significant new step in establishing its fully integrated drug discovery and development research services offerings to the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. With the aim to support its clients’ developmental needs by supplying material required for ‘First-in-human’ clinical studies, this facility has been designed with reactor capacity ranging up to 200L and reaction capabilities ranging from -80 to +200 degree Celsius. High end equipment, such as Differential Scanning Calorimeter and Reaction Calorimeter, have been installed with matching equipment like centrifuges, jet mills, vacuum tray dryers, sifters, etc. Following ‘safety through quality’ principle, the whole facility is integrated with a full scale Effluent Treatment Plant and due care has been taken to comply with stringent Health, Safety and Environmental (“HSE”) norms. A strong quality control team has been put in place to monitor achievement of the cGMP norms for the release of the material synthesized.

“Chembiotek is an established global leader in providing high end chemistry and allied discovery research solutions to its customers. The addition of this cGMP compliant kilo lab will allow us to offer developmental chemistry services which would enable us to speedily and seamlessly transfer technology from our current chemistry labs to the kilo lab for scale-up, process development and optimization. This kilo lab will also serve as a robust platform for technology transfer to pilot plant scale. Consistent with our fundamental value proposition, the kilo lab operations will inculcate state-of-the-art science, strictly adhere to delivery time and quality, and observe the highest ethical standards”, said Swapan Bhattacharya, Managing Director, TCG Lifesciences Limited.

“Our kilo lab would operate on a 24×7 basis with particular emphasis on efficiency, time optimization, innovative analytical techniques and highest quality control standards. We have taken great care in designing the labs and used the best-in-class equipment. Keeping in mind the spectrum of reaction handling capabilities, I am sure the lab will serve the varying needs of our existing and prospective customers. It will support all Investigative New Drugs (“IND”) enabling activities and the manufacture of clinical trial materials under GMP conditions. Other capabilities would include analytical method development, synthesis of impurities, metabolites and degradation products and stability studies, as per the international guidelines. Our in-house chemistry knowledge and experience generated over the years will help us develop and optimize safe, eco-friendly and cost effective processes,” said Jagdish Sastry, President, Custom Synthesis and Large Scale Manufacturing.

TCG Lifesciences, an India-based contract drug discovery and development company, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with Constella Group, a leading global provider of professional health services. As part of the non-exclusive relationship, TCG Lifesciences and Constella will jointly promote their contract services and identify and promote business opportunities across the two organizations.

Working with TCG Lifesciences’ clinical research and development arm (ClinInvent), Constella will expand its clinical trials services into India. Constella will promote ClinInvent’s clinical services to its clients interested in conducting clinical trials studies in India. In return, TCG Lifesciences will promote Constella’s services in Europe and the United States. Constella and TCG Lifesciences will work together to explore market opportunities in India for training, quality assurance, and regulatory affairs services.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with TCG Lifesciences,” said Don Holzworth, Constella’s Chairman and CEO. “India is attractive to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies because of the rapid patient recruitment into clinical studies and the country’s highly skilled workforce. This partnership allows us to expand our services into new areas of the world.”

Commenting on the partnership Mr. Swapan Bhattacharya, Managing Director, TCG Lifesciences said, “We are confident that the alliance with Constella Group will allow us to further leverage our management team, significant experience in conducting clinical research & data management in India and access to clinicians across the country. Through this alliance the companies aim to jointly work on the drug development process through application of a translational research approach.

The partnership with TCG Lifesciences expands Constella’s reach into India. The company has a corporate office in New Delhi with more than 40 employees.

TCG Lifesciences has entered into a strategic alliance with Forest Laboratories Holdings, a wholly – owned subsidiary of $2.8 billion Forest Laboratories inc., to discover a small molecule drug for inflammatory diseases.

TCG Lifesciences’ chemistry and biology research arm, Chembiotek, will work closely with scientists from Forest to identify and optime the lead molecules. A media release issued by TCG Lifesciences said the TCG-Forest research partnership will focus on Chembiotek’s capabilities in chemistry, biology and animal pharmacology.

Forest will retain ownership of the compounds, developed under this collaboration, with worldwide rights and fund all subsequent drug development and commercialization activities. However, Forest will pay Chembiotek and undisclosed discovery milestone as the product successfully progresses through the research process.

For lay readers, here’s what a ‘milestone payment’ is all about in the pharma realm. Incidentally, a new drug development is a complex process and once the lead molecule is identified, it takes another five to seven years for the product to be commercialised through several stages of research. As the lead molecule completes its stages of research, the innovator company pays the ‘collaborator firm’ a huge sum which is called the ‘milestone payout’.

Forest Laboratories Senior Vice-President (Scientific Affairs) Ivan Gergel said in the media release: “This collaboration is part of our continued commitment to fill our early stage pipeline through discovery partnerships.” Forest Labs is based out of New York and owns popular brands like Lexapro, Benicar and Namenda.

TCG Lifesciences Managing Director, Swapan Bhattacharya said: “In addition to our strong chemistry capabilities, we have developed strong biology and computational skills in the contract research space. This transaction with Forest represents the fourth integrated discovery project we have signed this year.”

Incidentally, Forest Labs, earlier this year, had entered into a smaller research partnership with Bangalore-based Aurigene Discovery Technologies for obesity and metabolic disorders. Asa part of the agreement, Aurigene could receive over $60 million in development and sales milestone payments if a compound is successfully commercialised.