Most contract research organizations (CROs) offer a wide variety of services ranging from preclinical studies and consultancy/advice to full clinical trials and regulatory support. Customers usually pick and choose the services they need from a vast menu of options, which can be overwhelming. In addition, the business is highly competitive, with what seems like an infinite number of firms, adding to the abundance of choices for customers.
New Delhi, India – November 08, 2012 – An eleven member jury comprising of experts from academia, industry and finance met at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi on October 4, 2012 to select the achievers in bioscience area for BioSpectrum Awards 2012. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Virander S Chauhan, director, ICGEB, along with Dr Chetan Chitnis, principal investigator, Malaria Group, ICGEB. Both were felicitated with the BioSpectrum person of the year award in 2011 and hence as per the tradition, they played host for the jury meeting this year.
Innovative partnership is a key element for CROs to sustain the rapid changes in the pharma industry. TCG Life Sciences (TCGLS), a leading contract research services, clinical research, and laboratory informatics company with operations in India, Europe, Japan, Australia and the US, offers a unique mode, which it has built on its strengths and forged strategic partnerships that has helped it essay the role of a partner rather than just a service provider.
TCGLifesciences Limited (“TCGLS”) announced today the nomination of a pre-clinical development candidate (“Candidate”) under a R&D collaboration entered into in 2009 with Pfizer Inc. (“Pfizer”).
As per the agreement, Pfizer will own the Candidate and other back up candidates while TCGLS will receive a milestone payment for its success in moving these molecules to the candidate stage.
The Candidate is a small molecule new chemical entity that meets all the success criteria set by Pfizer, including potency, pharmacokinetics, animal pharmacology, toxicology and related parameters. TCGLS’ participation encompasses synthetic chemistry, in-vitro pharmacology, DMPK, in-vivo pharmacology, and preliminary safety.
“This achievement reflects TCGLS’ in-depth expertise and ability to work in partnerships. We are delighted to meet our commitment of delivering the Candidate in less than two years time.” said Dr. Sourav Basu, AVP, TCG Lifesciences Limited. Mr. Swapan Bhattacharya, Managing Director, TCG Lifesciences Limited, remarked “We have established an excellent track record in our long term collaboration with Pfizer and this candidate nomination is a key milestone of the success of this partnership. This success also demonstrates the progress made by TCGLS in supporting innovation. I sincerely acknowledge the dedication of both the Pfizer and TCGLS scientific teams and congratulate them for this achievement”.
Contact TCG Lifesciences:
Corporate Affairs Department
TCG Lifesciences Limited
Mobile: +91 9810730653, email: [email protected]
About TCG Lifesciences Limited
TCG Lifesciences Limited is a leading Contract Research Services, clinical research, and laboratory informatics company with operations in India, Europe, Japan, Australia and the United States. It is part of The Chatterjee Group, a global investment conglomerate headquartered in New York. TCGLS collaborates to service the multi-disciplinary research efforts of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through its three units: Chembiotek (Discovery Research), Clininvent (Clinical Research Solutions), and LabVantage (Enterprise Informatics). It has trust based relationships with a majority of the global pharmaceutical companies. The relationships span from specific solutions and sourcing services to integrated projects across multiple domains to complete translational research programs in the drug discovery and development space. Learn more at www.tcgls.com
TCG Lifesciences Limited (TCGLS) has announced that it has entered into a strategic agreement with JSW Lifesciences (JSW), a full services EU based CRO, to strengthen its R&D offerings in the area of Central Nervous System (CNS). This agreement will enable TCGLS and JSW to offer specialized preclinical and early clinical development services in the neuroscience domain to their combined customer base.
Mr. Swapan Bhattacharya, Managing Director, TCGLS said about the deal, “TCGLS is pleased to partner with JSW to advance its expertise in the area of CNS and deliver innovative preclinical and early clinical development R&D solutions. This collaboration will add a new dimension to TCGLSs’ present offerings in the integrated drug discovery domain.”
Dr. Manfred Windisch, CEO, JSW Lifesciences, said, “Partnering with TCGLS gives us the opportunity to take advantage of ‘India benefit’ and work closely for mutual growth. Most important for us is the outstanding quality and the expertise of our partner. We are confident that this strategic tie-up will be highly beneficial to both. “
Contact TCG Lifesciences:
Corporate Affairs Department
TCG Lifesciences Limited
Mobile: +91 9810730653, email: [email protected]
Contact JSW Lifesciences:
Corporate Affairs Department
JSW-Lifesciences GmbH
Tel: +43-316-258111-110, email: [email protected]
About JSW Lifesciences
JSW Lifesciences is a full service contract research organization. The company performs preclinical as well as clinical research. JSW Lifesciences has profound expertise in neuroscience and more than a decade of experience in contract research resulting in a sustainable advantage for the customers. JSW is a world leading specialist for transgenic disease model in the field of neurological indications. Learn more at www.jswresearch.com
About TCG Lifesciences Limited
TCG Lifesciences Limited is a leading Contract Research Services, clinical research, and laboratory informatics company with operations in India, Europe, Japan, and the United States. It is part of The Chatterjee Group, a global investment conglomerate headquartered in New York. TCGLS collaborates to service the multi-disciplinary research efforts of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through its three units: Chembiotek (Discovery Research), Clininvent (Clinical Research Solutions), and LabVantage (Enterprise Informatics). It has trust based relationships with a majority of the global pharmaceutical companies. The relationships span from specific solutions and sourcing services to integrated projects across multiple domains to complete translational research programs in the drug discovery and development space. Learn more at www.tcgls.com
TCG Lifesciences Limited is a provider of contract research services and informatics with a focus on preclinical outsourcing and drug discovery operations in India, USA, Europe, Japan and Australia. In an exclusive interview with sp2, Swapan Bhattacharya, the company’s managing director, gives his perspective on international trends in outsourcing of R&D in the life sciences sector.
The ‘Japan Relief Fundraising Campaign’ initiative by TCG Lifesciences last month saw the
TCGLS community earnestly coming forward and participating in the campaign. We are delighted to share with you that TCGLS matched the quantum of individual cash donations as part of its CSR campaign; and the proceeds have been handed over to Oxfam India on May 3, 2011. Oxfam India is fervently carrying out relief and rehabilitation work in Japan.
All the individuals who have donated for this noble cause are highly admirable to us and this campaign would not have been a success without their help and encouragement. Together we wish for Japan to recover from the tragedy and emerge as a stronger nation than ever in the future.
Once again we thank all the contributors for joining hands in this fundraising campaign.
Leading India-based contract research organization signs three-year contract for the premier chemical and scientific research tool
Kolkata, India – April 4, 2011 – The world’s authority for chemical information, announced today that TCG Lifesciences Limited, a leading contract research services and informatics company based in India, has signed a three-year contract to provide its scientists and researchers with unlimited access to SciFinder. SciFinder will help TCG Lifesciences grow its position as a contract research organization that provides a new paradigm of cutting edge drug discovery and development platform in the competitive and fast growing Indian pharmaceutical research space.
“We have had a relationship with CAS for a long time, hence when we were required to select an enterprise-wide research platform for our R&D teams, SciFinder was the clear choice, given its reliable, high-quality content and advanced reaction planning tools. Our scientists now have on-demand access to the largest collection of small molecules and related information, including references to millions of peer-reviewed research papers and patents. SciFinder gives our researchers the insight they need to produce the flagship laboratory data for which we are known,” said Dr. Sourav Basu, Associate Vice-President of TCG Lifesciences.
SciFinder, the world’s leading research and discovery tool, will offer TCG Lifesciences teams a variety of powerful research and analysis options, including Markush searching for retrieving additional patents for substances that are claimed in generic terms, and the recently-announced SciPlanner™, an interactive reaction planning workspace especially valuable for pharmaceutical and biotechnology research.
SciFinder’s comprehensive and current content, sophisticated analysis and collaboration capabilities, and demonstrated results inside the lab and out have made it the preferred source of chemical information for scientists around the globe. Its streamlined navigation and intuitive interface integrated with CAS’ trusted content gives researchers confidence in the quality of their work.
“CAS is committed to providing the most complete collection of reliable chemical information needed by chemists and other researchers to drive innovation,” said Robert J. Massie, president of CAS. “We look forward to supporting TCG Lifesciences’ work in the arena of drug discovery and development, as they continue to enhance and make potential life-saving advancements through their R&D efforts.”
Related links
https://www.cas.org/products/scifindr/index.html
About SciFinder
SciFinder® is the first choice of scientists conducting research in chemistry and related fields. The award-winning application offers access to the CAS REGISTRYSM database, known as the gold standard of chemical substance collections. In addition, SciFinder retrieves more references than any other scientific search service, including relevant patent documents, journal article information, and reliable web sources. Finally, SciFinder is secure; its confidential research results are guaranteed and protected by CAS’ secured systems.
About CAS
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, is the world’s authority for chemical information. Our databases are curated and quality-controlled by CAS scientists, and recognized by chemical and pharmaceutical companies, universities, government organizations, and patent offices around the world as authoritative. By combining these databases with advanced search and analysis technologies (SciFinder®, STN®, and Science IP® products and services), CAS delivers the most current, complete, and cross-linked secure digital information environment for scientific discovery. Learn more at https://www.cas.org.
About TCG Lifesciences Limited
TCG Lifesciences Limited is a leading Contract Research Services, clinical research, and
laboratory informatics company with operations in India, Europe, Japan, and the United States. It is part of The Chatterjee Group, a global investment conglomerate headquartered in New York. TCGLS collaborates to service the multi-disciplinary research efforts of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through its three units: Chembiotek (Discovery Research), Clininvent (Clinical Research Solutions), and LabVantage (Enterprise Informatics). It has trust based relationships with a majority of the global pharmaceutical companies. The relationships span from specific solutions and sourcing services to integrated projects across multiple domains to complete translational research programs in the drug discovery and development space. Learn more at https://tcgls.com.
Don’t Compete Too Early
Indeed, pre-competitive collaborations were a major focus of discussion at the summit. J&J Global Head R&D-Pharma Paul Stoffels mentioned development of HIV biomarkers during the 1980s as another example where big pharma worked together to develop a framework that allowed for competition further up the R&D stream. Stoffels suggested that industry leaders sit down and hammer out how to better share and collaborate in the pre-competitive space.
McKinsey Asian & North American Life Sciences Co-leader Ajay Dhankhar suggested big pharma look to the airline industry as a model for collaboration, noting that alliance partnerships developed in the 80s were a success formula for a struggling industry, fostering the sharing of customer data among airlines while maintaining competition.
But there is a limit to how far collaboration can go, Stoffels noted. In the end, networks don’t discover drugs, people do. And pharma companies need teams of dedicated scientists who are likely to fail many times before getting it right, he said.
Nevertheless, pharma should work together to find targets or select likely responders, and save competition for later trials and R&D execution, suggested Rod MacKenzie, senior VP and head of worldwide research at Pfizer PharmaTherapeutics.
He highlighted a series of partnerships Pfizer has signed in Asia with academic institutions and contract research organizations and manufacturers, noting that most partnerships start small and expand over time as trust is built between the partners.
In one example, Pfizer in January expanded a partnership with Kolkata, India-based TCG Lifesciences: TCG will develop a portfolio of undisclosed molecules in several discovery target programs up to the nomination of preclinical candidates. Pfizer will own the compounds and provide research funding, and TCG is eligible for undisclosed research milestones (PharmAsia News, Jan. 6, 2010). The TCG relationship developed over several years, with the Indian company initially providing discovery chemistry work under a master services agreement, which Pfizer expanded in February 2009 to include integrated research services.
But MacKenzie also suggested that Pfizer needs to transform its one-to-one partnerships by linking them together into a “collaboration of collaborations.” Once accomplished, Pfizer should then link its network of partnerships to networks created by other big pharmas like Lilly and Merck, MacKenzie said.
That goal ought to be welcomed by other big pharmas. In a separate presentation, Sanofi Aventis Executive VP & Global Head of R&D Marc Cluzel summarized his partnership strategy in a PowerPoint slide that said: “Shared Strategy, Shared Networks, Shared Resources and Expertise, Shared Benefits.” Like Pfizer, Sanofi has been active recently in Asia, signing a deal with India’s Glenmark for transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV3) antagonist molecules, with the Mumbai-based pharma getting $20 million up front and milestone payments that could bring in $305 million more (PharmAsia News, May 3, 2010).
And like Pfizer, Sanofi also wants to turn its “preferred partners” into “preferred networks,” Cluzel said. The R&D chief is also on board for pre-competitive deals, telling attendees that big pharma could define the pre-competitive space in a contract, which would allow collaboration until research reaches a pre-defined point.
That would also sit well with Merck Chief Strategy Officer & Senior VP Emerging Markets R&D Merv Turner, who noted that many in big pharma now favor mechanisms for collaboration during early-stage research, including patent pools, provided IP rights are maintained further upstream for molecules that reach the market.
That’s because the real skill in drug development – the playing field companies should compete on – is turning data into safe and effective medicines, Turner said. Indeed, according to Turner, what big pharma does best is reverse engineer. While the first molecule brought into clinic often fails, Merck and Pfizer are good at discovering what went wrong and making changes so that a drug eventually reaches market, Turner said.
And it’s not just big pharma looking to partner. Also count in Vertex Executive VP Global R&D Peter Mueller, who pleaded for a commitment to openness in the preclinical space, particularly for research on neglected diseases like tuberculosis.
Neglected diseases are one area where some progress has been made, with GSK launching a patent pool last year for tropical diseases that is administered by BIO Ventures for Global Health (‘The Pink Sheet,’ Feb. 23, 2009). Alnylam also joined the pool, and last week South Africa’s Technology Innovation Agency announced it would use the pool – containing more than 2,300 patents – to work on drugs for TB and malaria, partnering with local biotechs, including Johannesburg-based iThemba Pharmaceuticals, which joined the pool in January.
Blame The Lawyers?
So if everyone’s on board, what’s the holdup? Lawyers are responsible, of course, along with university technology transfer offices, according to the R&D heads.
Turner, half jokingly, said that more money is spent protecting early-stage IP than on early-stage research, and singled out tech transfer offices, in particular, as standing in the way of patent pooling.
Amgen Senior VP Research David Lacey was more direct, saying that pre-commercial collaboration and expansion of R&D networks falls in the cross hairs of IP lawyers, including big pharma attorneys, who look to protect everything they can as intellectual property.
It is already difficult for lawyers to sign off on one-to-one partnerships, said Lacey, who predicted that hashing out terms for a pre-commercial network could be a Herculean task.
“We basically have to decide that we don’t like intellectual property lawyers to do this, because we would be so tangled up in language,” Lacey said.
Yet hope remains. Pfizer’s Mackenzie noted that R&D executives are eager to sign more deals like the pre-commercial collaboration involving Pfizer, Lilly and Merck on Asia cancers. Yes, attorneys have trouble signing off on such deals, Mackenzie acknowledged, but in the end the deal got done. And with big pharma desperate to speed up drug development and conserve resources, it’s likely the R&D heads have the upper hand, at least for now. – Joshua Berlin ([email protected])
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Global contract research and informatics companyTCG Lifesciences Limited (TCGLS) today launched its Australian operations to offer highly efficient and sought-after discovery research and development services.
Mantrax Ventures will represent TCGLS in Australia and enable Australian companies to attain cost-effective, accelerated development of their latent IP and product pipelines.
“TCGLS assists partner companies to expand and strengthen product pipelines. The in-house expertise, track-record and unique integrated research platform significantly lowers up-front and ongoing costs of research and development,” said Dr Kapil Talwar, Director, Mantrax Ventures.
TCGLS, as part of the New York based The Chatterjee Group (TCG), has trust based relationships with over 200 clients including 15 out of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer recently entered into a collaborative discovery agreement with TCGLS for developing a portfolio of pre-clinical candidate molecules.
“Our talented scientists and state-of-the-art research facilities enable us to engage seamlessly with our partners to accelerate and enhance the drug development process securely under one roof,” said MrSwapan Bhattacharya, Managing Director, TCG Lifesciences.
“We want to dedicate ourselves to helping unlock the vast potential of intellectual property assets which exist at Australian life science companies. Our flexible engagement models help in creating a win-win situation across stakeholders.A large benefit of our outsourcing model is that our partners are serviced by a dedicated project team and all intellectual property generated is owned by them,” he added.
The global outsourcing services range from pre-clinical candidate nomination to clinical trials management and synthesis of cGMP drug substances. Capabilities are maintained within leading technology park facilities and are maintained by over 1,000 scientists and professionals with EU and US experience.
Mantrax Ventures is TCG Lifesciences’ Australian business development partner. Mantrax facilitates alliances between India, Japan and Australia, particularly in high technology areas, through sourcing from contract research and manufacturing organisations, licensing of intellectual property and value-adding to ‘orphan’ technologies. The group also has strong connections to investors keen to review Australian assets.
Victorian Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings welcomed the venture and said that basing its Australia New Zealand headquarters in Melbourne demonstrated the important role Victoria plays in Australia’s biotechnology industry.
“Companies like TCG Lifesciences are choosing Victoria as an entry way into Asia Pacific because of our high quality infrastructure, support for the biotechnology sector and our strong strengths in research and development,” said Mr Jennings.
“We see this as a golden opportunity to further develop intellectual property and provide real, tangible benefits for Australia,” said Mantrax director, Dr Kapil Talwar.
“When the opportunity exists to obtain the best quality assistance, securely and affordably, without having to navigate the hurdles of cultural differences and language, we find that companies are very keen to talk,” Dr Talwar said.
“TCGLS’s ability to provide services across cultures in a collaborative, transparent and seamless fashion is very exciting,” he said.
The Mantrax Ventures team will be conducting a roadshow to discuss TCGLS services over the coming weeks. Interested companies are encouraged to contact Dr Julia Hill at Mantrax Ventures.
Contacts:
Mr. Sandeep Gupta, Head Corporate Affairs
TCG Lifesciences Limited
Mobile: 91 9810730653, email: [email protected]
Dr Julia Hill, Director
Mantrax Ventures
Mobile: 0409 105 435, email: [email protected]
About TCG Lifesciences Limited
TCG Lifesciences Limited is a leading research services and informatics company with operations in India, Europe, Japan and the United States. It is part of The Chatterjee Group, a global investment conglomerate headquartered in New York. TCG Lifesciences Limited (“TCGLS”) collaborates to service the multi-disciplinary research efforts of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through its 3 units Chembiotek (Discovery Research), Clininvent (Clinical Research Solutions) & LabVantage (Enterprise Informatics). It has trust based relationships with a majority of the global pharmaceutical companies. The relationships span from specific solutions and sourcing services to integrated projects across multiple domains to complete translational research programs in the drug discovery and development space.
About Mantrax Ventures
Mantrax Ventures is focused on bridging alliances between Indian and Australian as well as Indian and Japanese high technology companies. Activities include: licensing, sourcing of CRO’s, M&A activity and new ventures. The group is well networked and connected in the regions, with direct access to investors in each of the three regions. Deep knowledge of intellectual property pipelines within the biotechnology sector and a ready access to, and familiarity with, contract research organisations and manufacturers for drug development in India.
@ 2021 TCG Lifesciences Private Limited. All Right Reserved.
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