Germany's Altana Setting up New India R&D Centre

The Indian unit of German ethical drugmaker Altana Pharma AG is to build a new EUR9.8mn (US$12.80mn) research unit in Mumbai, India. The 6,000 square metre facility is expected to be completed in the second half of 2005, with research activity to begin shortly before. The unit will eventually employ roughly 120 people.

Altana already has a research partnership with Indian company National Chemical Laboratories in Pune, and is understood to be evaluating collaborations with academic institutions in the city. Meanwhile, discovery work at the new Mumbai unit is likely to focus on the gastrointestinal, respiratory and cardiovascular segments. The company produces the gastrointestinal drug Pantozol (pantoprazole) and recently launched its Alvesco treatment for persistent asthma. Altana's new investment is in line with current trends, as multinationals increase their R&D activities in India, at a time when the country has moved to reform patent law and relax controls on clinical trials.