R&D Focus

As biotechnology and genetic engineering open up new avenues, Piramal Life Sciences’ R&D focus is designed to maximize opportunities throughout the research value chain.

Pharma leaders haven’t been significantly increasing the number of NCEs in their pipelines, preferring instead to requisition R&D boutiques that work at creating new molecular designs. Global spending on R&D is likely to grow 8-12 per cent by 2010 and trends indicate that up to 30 per cent of global research expenditure will be outside established corporate boundaries on a contract or part-time investment basis.

On the other hand, the volume and complexity of work to bring an entity to approval is increasing steadily. In developed markets, patient recruitment is a critical problem. According to some estimates, patient recruitment and medical personnel account for nearly 70 per cent of the clinical costs to bring a drug to market, and these costs are rising. The time for approval is also going up, thereby shortening the life under patent and indirectly increasing costs.

Piramal Life Sciences (PLSL) intends to harness India's considerable skills in research-based activities like informatics, structure-based design and synthesis, and molecular biology. Our aim is to become an integrated pharmaceutical company with a commitment to discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of indigenous pharmaceutical products for the global marketplace. With this target in mind, we place a premium on promoting new concepts and individual inspiration from all sources -- external and internal.