Global Customized Solution Provider

Syngene International, a subsidiary of Biocon established in 1994, offers customized R&D services to the pharma and biotech companies. It was the first integrated contract research organization in India in drug discovery with multidisciplinary skills in synthetic chemistry and molecular biology. It specializes in early stage drug discovery and development.

The company's sales in 2003-04, which comprises of custom research services and net sales of compounds, grew by over 46 percent from Rs 26.50 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 38.48 crore in the last fiscal. Its contracts are largely based on time and material management. The growth in 2003-04 has been on account of increase in the number of clients and higher realization per scientist. The company has enrolled six of the 10 major global pharma companies as its clients. In 2003-04, it added a few companies from Japan and Australia, thus expanding its existing base from those in the US and Europe.

Syngene sees a significant growth opportunity in the services sector in the future. In light of this, the company is expanding its facilities and human resources. Its new R&D facility is expected to be operation in the second half of the calendar year. This 80,000-sft facility will house research laboratories, a cGMP pilot plant for the production of Phase-I drug molecules and intermediates besides a well-equipped analytical facility complete with GC-MS, NMR and FTIR facilities. It is being readied to cater to its growing global clientele. Syngene has invested close to Rs 23.52 crore in 2003-03 on R&D, infrastructure and people.

Meanwhile, in 2003-04, it registered a 52 percent growth in its staff size. In 2003-04, Syngene had 277 people, up from 182 people in 2002-03. Currently, nine percent of its staff hold PhDs and this number in 2004-05 is expected to grow to about 10.5 percent. A majority of its employees are either MSc or Mphil degree holders. This number accounts for 74 percent of the total staff. While this group is expected to grow to 245 in FY 2005, the total number of employees would go up to 335. The growth has been on account of a 13-fold increase in its custom synthesis projects.

Syngene's strengths lie in the areas of molecular biology, synthetic chemistry, and informatics. In the synthetic chemistry arena, it offers low temperature chemistry services, metal mediated synthesis, asymmetric synthesis, biotransformations, parallel synthesis, chiral resolution, ozonolysis, microwave chemistry, hydrogenation under high pressure and temperature, process development and product development under cGMP.

In molecular biology, its expertise lies in gene cloning and heterologous expression in various host systems such as bacteria, yeast, fungi, insect and mammalian cells, downstream processing and purification of recombinant proteins, customized construction of gDNA, cDNA, BAC libraries from varied sources, directed evolution and site-directed mutagenesis of proteins and enzymes and genetic manipulation of strains for improved productivity.