Advinus enters collaboration for drug development

Mumbai: Three-year-old Advinus Therapeutics, a Tata group company, has entered into a drug development collaboration with Johnson and Johnson subsidiary, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Advinus will receive milestone payments of $247 million (about Rs 1,150 crore) on the development of novel targets, said Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of the company, making it among the biggest deals in this space.

To start with, the company would work on two novel targets. The fledgling company would also be eligible to get royalties from the sale of drug products that emerge from the association, he added.

The possible drug candidates are in various target areas, company top-brass told reporters, adding that it would be within therapeutic areas where Advinus has its strengths. In the past, Advinus has inked a similar deal with Merck, from which it has already got three milestone payments, one last year and two this year, he said without giving details.

The company also has two other alliances for neglected diseases with Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) for the fatal infectious tropical disease kala azar and another with Genzyme Corp and Medicines for Malaria Venture for anti-malarial drugs.

Tata Sons has invested about Rs 200 crore already in the company, said Mr R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director and Chairman of Advinus. The Tatas hold majority equity, he said and added that the company will cross a turnover of Rs 100 crore next year.

Advinus is set to shift to its new research centre, also located at Pune, within the next few weeks, besides increasing its staff to 500 people, Dr Barbhaiya said.

The company at present has 450 staff, including 110 people at Pune, focussed on innovative research and discovery.