"Distilleries using Brazilian technology operate on cane juice as well as cane molasses. However, Praj with its experience of working on sugarcane based raw materials, has been able to provide a much superior technology using molasses," explained Pramod Chaudhari, chairman, Praj.
Fabtech bags Biological E clean room order
Mumbai based Fabtech Technologies has bagged the contract for design, supply and
installation of modular clean room panels at Biological E Ltd. The company is
setting up an export oriented new vaccines facility at Shapoorji Pallonji
Biotech Park at Shameerpet, near Hyderabad. The new facility is being set up as
per WHO cGMP norms and would be certified by WHO.
Fabtech, part of the Mumbai-based AIRCORP group, which specializes in engineering, consultancy and turnkey execution of projects for the whole spectrum of pharmaceutical products across 15 countries in East Europe, Asia and Africa, is expecting to complete the $1.20 million contract by this year-end. Pulla Reddy, senior manager projects, Fabtech, said, "This order is a vindication of our expertise and execution capabilities. Laminar airflow units, pass boxes and biological safety cabinets are also part of the supply. This is the single largest domestic order received by Fabtech so far."
Alfa Laval India targets Rs 60 cr from life sciences
segment
Alfa Laval India, a major supplier of diverse key technologies to the
Indian biotechnology industry is looking at reaping Rs 60 crore from its life
sciences segment. With the growth of the biotechnology/life sciences industry
the company's life sciences division has been doing well. During the last year
its sales from life sciences segment stood at Rs 40 crore against Rs 20 crore in
2002-03.
Alfa Laval India has already bagged an order of Rs 12 crore for solvent recovery plant from Biocon India. It has also received enquires from other companies. Looking at the opportunity in India the company has acquired land adjacent to the existing facilities in Pune. The new facility will focus on high-speed decanter, fabrication and separators business. For this the company is investing about Rs 30-35 crore in buildings, machinery and manpower. It has also entered a tie up with the US -based KATZEN International for the vapor-phase molecular sieve technology.
BioRad sets new facility for separation solutions
BioRad, a multinational manufacturer and distributor of life science research
products and clinical diagnostics, has set up a facility at the Mumbai
University Institute of Chemical Technology (MUICT) to provide "Separation
Solutions" to the rapidly growing Indian bio/pharma industry. Technical
expertise at MUICT combined with product support from BioRad is expected to
provide the 'missing link' between bench scale technologies and successful
commercial ventures by through providing cost effective separation solutions
using modern equipment and technology.
Dhiren Wagle, country manager of BioRad said, "The purpose of this initiative to set up a facility for the lead work. The industry is invited to avail the initiative to custom develop their separation technologies through a three-node model involving BioRad, user industry and MUICT."
DPC, Thermo Electron sign distribution agreement
Diagnostic Products Corporation (DPC) and Thermo Electron Corporation
have announced a distribution agreement for the Thermo Konelab clinical
chemistry systems and the TC Automation laboratory automation products. The
agreement provides DPC with distribution rights to sell the Konelab clinical
chemistry systems for human clinical diagnostics and veterinary testing in
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. In France and Germany, DPC
will lead efforts to market the Konelab product line when sold together with the
Immulite family of systems, while both companies will continue to serve their
other customers. The agreement also provides DPC with nonexclusive distribution
rights to the TC Automation product line when sold together with the Immulite
systems and Konelab clinical chemistry systems. "DPC is one of the leading
immunoassay suppliers, and we believe that Thermo's clinical chemistry and
laboratory automation system products will be well represented by DPC,"
said Marc Casper, president, Life and Laboratory Sciences Group, Thermo."
Skytech is Indian distributor for Phase Technology,
Accustandard
Phase Technology, Canada and Accustandard Inc. USA have appointed Skytech
Systems India Pvt Ltd as their authorized distributor for India. Phase
Technology offers cloud, pour and freezing point analyzers for lab and online
applications. Accustandard Inc is an analytical standards manufacturing company.
Skytech Systems offers products to scientists, quality control managers and
researchers for analyzing various types of samples that helps user in
maintaining good quality, a clean environment/develop a new product. It has
supplied and installed a Sievers Model 820 TOC (Total Organic Carbon) analyzer
at Shreya Life Sciences, Aurangabad, Serum Institute of India, Pune and RPG Life
sciences.
Agilent commercializes model organism used in plant
research
Agilent Technologies has introduced the first whole-genome oligonucleotide
microarray for the study of Arabidopsis thaliana, the primary model plant used
in gene expression research. By revealing gene activity associated with various
biological functions, stages of growth and response to stress in the plant, the
Arabidopsis 3 oligo microarray kit allows scientists to understand these
processes in common crop plants such as corn, soybean and cotton. Scientists
will use this knowledge to improve crop yields, enhance the quality of plant
fibers, foods and other materials and increase plant resistance to disease and
drought.
"Our new Arabidopsis microarray provides a major leap in content coverage over current competitive products," said Mel Kronick, chief scientist of Agilent's Integrated Biology Solutions unit. "In addition to covering all known protein coding transcripts of the Arabidopsis genome, it is also the first to provide probes for unannotated genomic regions".
Pall launches new line of protein purification kits
Pall Corporation, a player in the rapidly growing fields of
filtration, separations and purification, strengthens its position in the
proteomics market with the introduction of three new protein purification kits,
its first entries in an extended line of Enchant Life Sciences Kits.
The Enchant Life Sciences kit for albumin depletion and the two Enchant Life Sciences kits for IgG (immunoglobulin G) purification remove these abundant proteins from human and animal-derived serum or plasma samples, providing the critical first step in isolating new drug targets. The demand for proteomics technologies is increasing as scientists seek complete, all-inclusive sample preparation kits to better expedite their work in protein analyses and drug discovery. Pall's new protein purification kits support this need for advanced technology in the proteomics sample preparation market, which is projected to expand to $367.7 million by 2009.
Millipore expands customer support with OEM hotline
Millipore, a multinational bioscience company that provides
technologies, tools and services for the discovery, development and production
of new therapeutic drugs, introduced its worldwide OEM Membrane Hotline,
supporting medical device designers and engineers with direct access to
Millipore's team of membrane experts.
Millipore's hotline staff consists of engineers and application scientists familiar with the manufacturing process of membranes. Experienced in helping customers incorporate membranes into products, these specialists can answer device and diagnostic-related questions for the optimization of medical products, filtration, membrane sealing, plastic compatibility, sealing methods and parameters, sterilization compatibility, material properties and compatibility and device manufacturing and troubleshooting.
Applied Biosystems brings new expression array
system
Applied Biosystems recently announced the worldwide commercial
availability of its expression array system. The product combines the sensitive
gene detection capabilities with easy integration to Applied Biosystems'
complementary gene expression products. Together, these systems provide a
comprehensive and streamlined solution for studies of human gene expression. For
the Indian market, LabIndia Instruments is marketing the entire product range of
Applied Biosystems. VS Upadhyay, director LabIndia, is expecting good results
from this new technology especially from the Indian market. He said, "The
priorities of Indian market are also moving with a fast pace. Scientists are
updated with the latest technologies. The new expression array system has so far
gained good amount of attention from the Indian scientific community, we hope to
see good results in future."
TechnoConcept to open bioinformatics training centre
TechnoConcept, a supplier of international instruments, software and consumables
to the biotech industry is planning to open a training center at its New Delhi
corporate office soon. Its objective is to make people aware about the
technicalities of the bioinformatics product range. Shortly, the company's
product specialists will conduct regular training programs. Established in 1995,
TechnoConcept has gained expertise in supplying products for biotech research.
Its list of foreign partners has continuously expanded, so has the range of
products. Today the company is supplying products for almost all stages of
research. The company caters to three specific market segments of consumables,
instrumentation and scientific software. Recently the company expanded its
network and strengthened its marketing team. The company has presence in almost
all major Indian cities having a substantial life sciences/ biotech research
market. "As of now, we have our representatives in Bangalore, Chandigarh,
Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow. Soon we will be appointing our representatives
in Gujrat, Kolkata and Mumbai," Rakesh Arora, managing director,
TechnoConcept, said.
Genetix to market ND-1000 spectrophotometer
ND-1000 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer, which enables accurate analyses of
extremely small samples with remarkable reproducibility is now also being
distributed by New Delhi-based Genetix Biotech Asia, in addition to Bangalore-based
JH Bio Associates. This spectrophotometer was launched by the US-based NanoDrop
Technologies. The patented sample retention system of the spectrophotometer
eliminates the need for cuvettes and capillaries, which decreases the
measurement cycle time. In addition, the high absorbance capability eliminates
the need for most dilutions.
What
attractions does Stratagene offer to the Indian market?
As a supplier for life sciences, biotech and other related research,
Stratagene supports advances in science by inventing, manufacturing and
marketing products that simplify, accelerate and improve research. We are a
twenty-year-old company dealing in range of products and services from molecular
biology, genomics, proteomics, drug discovery to toxicology. We also deal in
enzymes, Pfus and are among the pioneers in the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
market. Stratagene is into the PCR market since the advent of this technology.
All these products have a great potential in Indian market.
From Stratagene's perspective how
big is the Indian research market?
The over all Indian research market is growing at a good rate. In
life sciences India is doing quality work in molecular biology, genomics,
proteomics, drug discovery, toxicology research and various other related
fields. The Indian scientific community has already established its image at the
global level. We foresee good growth in near future.
What has been your experience in
India? What are its strategies for the future?
The company has had a good experience in the Indian market. We are
now almost a decade old company in India. During the past three years we have
been working with the Chandigarh-based Imperial Bio-Medic.
Startagene's core business strategy revolves around local market acceptance. Understanding the local market is the most valuable aspect for any business. We are covering the entire Indian market through the network of Imperial Bio-Medic. Since Imperial has already gained strong market acceptance, we will continue to work with them.
Stratagene has recently launched
FullVelocity kits. How do these kits work?
The FullVelocity technology is a new high-speed reagent system for
QPCR and QRT-PCR that delivers sensitive, specific and reproducible results with
significantly shorter overall run times than other QPCR reagents. This
technology uses a novel multi-enzyme formulation, which has been extensively
tested for fast cycling conditions. FullVelocity multi-enzyme formulation is the
key to this novel technology.
The FullVelocity kits are designed to improve the speed and throughput of linear hydrolysis probe-based reactions without compromising sensitivity, specificity or reproducibility. Depending on the instrument used, one can reduce overall reaction time significantly.
What are the new products in
pipeline? Anything special in reference to India?
Startagene is closely looking at the RT-PCR market. We will be introducing a
good range of RT-PCR products for molecular biology research by the end of 2004.
The company would be offering the entire product range in India. And whatever is
released globally will be made available in India
