CONTRACT RESEARCH


customers by offering seamless services through the entire drug discovery and development value chain in selected therapeutic areas that target on kinases. Kinase-based targets are in high demand today, particularly for the discovery of novel therapeutics for cancer,” says Bhattacharya. Recent global collaborations in discovery research include: a collaboration with Pfizer to develop a portfolio of preclinical candidate molecules in a series of discovery target programmes; and a collaboration with Endo


Pharmaceuticals to discover novel small- molecule drug candidates for the treatment of pain. TXGLS has also collaborated with a US pharmaceutical company in which it has developed process and


analytical methods to


“We intend to continue


organisations in the USA, Europe, Japan and Australia. We communicate with our customers on a regular basis through video conferencing, by telephone, and through emails and chats. In addition, our strong IT platform enables us to electronically manage all lab notebooks, inventories and orders, and making real-time communication possible,” Bhattacharya says. “We see integrated drug discovery collaboration emerging as the preferred model for global sourcing of research by the


diversifying our


range of service and product offerings in order to increase business”


support supply of 50 kg/month of an active ingredient manufactured under cGMP. In clinical research, the company has an alliance with Cancer Trials Australia (CTA) designed to exploit complementary capabilities in selected areas of clinical development and to offer services spanning Phase 1 to 4 clinical trials.


In the enterprise informatics field, the company is working with a European public health care authority on the digitisation of pathology labs in Northern Europe. These are the largest such installations in the world, with an overall data growth rate of 300 terabytes per year. The company is also working with a US-headquartered global contract research organisation on biobanking solutions to support that company’s research and development.


Flexible approach Bhattacharya says that TCGLS has always pursued a flexible approach in engaging with customers, with models ranging from fee-for- service FTE (full time equivalent) agreements through to risk-sharing in different formats. The company has relationships with more than 200 customers spread across global pharmaceutical and biotech companies, academia and research laboratories. Currently, it has ongoing relationships with 14 of the top 20 pharmaceutical majors.


Serving industry globally “Our discovery research customers are spread around the world and include companies and


pharmaceutical sector. In the process, marginal players that offer non-specialised or ‘generic’ services and those that haven’t achieved sufficient scale will find it difficult to survive. Pharma majors will rely more


on biotechnology and CRO players to support their pipeline needs given that many such players lack the R&D strength, post- restructuring, to develop candidates internally. In this likely scenario, TCG Lifesciences is well positioned as an experienced CRO with deep and broad scientific expertise and optimal scale. In order to maintain this leadership position, we will continue to add new capabilities and technology platforms that can be utilised by our partners. We will also continue to recruit and train our medicinal chemists to support drug discovery programmes running at our customer sites. “Keeping the future prospects in mind,


TCGLS has added significant capacity for parallel chemistry and ADME assays due to increased demand. Similarly, we have added multiple LCMS and other cutting-edge instruments for chemistry use and we are in the process of adding chemistry lab space. We have added about 30 per cent additional space at our biological and in-vivo lab facilities and have received regulatory approval of the BSL-3 lab. We are now in the process of establishing a strategic alliance that will expand our capacity for large-scale chemistry synthesis, which will enable us to more efficiently utilise our cGMP capabilities. “In addition to integrated sourcing, the pharma industry along with non-pharma crop science, neutraceutical, cosmeceutical and speciality chemical players will continue to require functional sourcing of chemistry and biology services. We intend to continue diversifying our range of service and product


Meet Swapan Bhattacharya of TCG Lifesciences Limited


Swapan Bhattacharya is the managing director of TCG Lifesciences Limited (formerly Chembiotek Research International), a life sciences research services and informatics company based in India and part of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), a global investment conglomerate headquartered in the USA. He joined TCG in 1995 and in 2001 assumed responsibility for the development and expansion of TCG’s life sciences business.


In 2007, Bhattacharya led the acquisition by


TCG Lifesciences of Clininvent Research Pvt Ltd, a ‘clinical trials’ company, and Labvantage Inc, a laboratory information management systems company. He has also established a relationship with the Indian Government to operate and manage The Centre for Genomic Application, India’s largest share-service facility in genomics and proteomics, in a public-private partnership. Prior to joining TCG, Bhattacharya worked


for PaineWebber Inc (now UBS PaineWebber) from 1987 to 1995. From 1980 to 1987, he was Advisor to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where he was responsible for developing strategies in the disposal of nuclear materials and waste. Bhattacharya received a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, an MS from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He received the Lester Cunningham Award for academic excellence at Northwestern.


offerings in order to increase business from our existing customers and acquire new customers on a global basis,” he concludes.


Further information Swapan Bhattacharya TCG Lifesciences Ltd Block BN, Sector V, Salt Lake City Kolkata 700 091 India


Tel: 91 33 2367 3151 Fax: 91 33 2367 3058


Internet links Email: info@tcgls.com Web: www.tcgls.com


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