Kolkata, India - Sep 23, 2005

Animal trials on TCG Life radar

TCG Life Sciences, a company promted by The Chatterjee Group (TCG) of Purnendu Chatterjee, has plans to enter animal trials, either by picking up an existing third-part facility in India or by building its own set-up.

According to Dr Swapan Bhattacharya, head of TCG Life, animal trials form a critical missing link in TCG Life Sciences’ activities. “Between developing a chemistry lead, there is a period before you can go to human trials when you have to do animal trials, mainly fortoxicitytests,”he said. “If we decide to set up our own facility, then it could take up to two years.”

Acquisition of an existing facility would be faster by a few months. In India, there are five or so independent animal testing labs. The third option would be to look outside India, at countries like China where the regime is easier.

TCG Life Sciences aims to become a company that can offer an integrated range of services akin to what pharmaceuticals major do on the R&D front. “Over time, when all of these are separately benchmarked, we may acually merge them together,” he said.

At present, the four outfits of TCG Life Science are working separately with clients.

The Centre for Genomic Applications (TCGA) is in the fist stage of genomic and proteomics research, when one decides what the target should be while tackling a disease. It is a shared facility set up with CSIR