Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

India biotech profile lifted by US stem cell list

India's nascent biotech industry got a boost when the country's biggest industrial group and a research laboratory funded by the Department of Atomic Energy were identified as having stem cell lines eligible for use in US-funded research.

Reliance Life Sciences, a unit of the $13.2 billion Reliance group, and the Bangalore-based National Centre for Biological Sciences were two of 10 entities around the world identified by US officials as having 'genetically diverse' human embryonic stem cell lines obtained in an approved manner.

Embryonic stem cells are cells, derived from embryos, that have the ability to transform themselves into virtually any type of cell in the body.

Experts believe human embryonic stem cells hold promise for treating serious conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.

The research is controversial because obtaining the cells requires destroying an embryo.

A Reliance statement on Tuesday said that the development placed its biotech unit, formed earlier this year, in the global league of cell research companies.

The statement quoted Reliance group vice-chairman Mukesh Ambani -- who along with his brother Anil runs India's largest industrial group by assets, sales and profit -- as saying he was 'enthused by the promise' of the group's cell biology unit.

Reliance, whose primary business interests lie in petrochemicals and refining, said it had set up the cell biology research centre in Bombay, the first of its kind in Asia, to work on stem cell research and tissue engineering.

Reliance plans to establish a centre in Bombay to develop techniques for using cell transplants to treat illnesses and injuries through tissue and organ regeneration, and research laboratories to work in disciplines like pancreatic, hepatic and retinal stem cells.

Nerve development

The other Indian facility on the NIH list, the National Centre for Biological Studies, is located in India's high-tech capital of Bangalore.

Mitradas Panicker, who leads stem cell research at the centre, told Reuters from Cochin, a coastal city in south India where he was holidaying, that NCBS's stem cell work was in the area of nerve development.

"We have been working for about a year now on human embryonic cells and for about two years on mouse cells," he said.

Panicker said the centre's potential stem cell lines were from different embryos, obtained from a fertility clinic and with the informed consent of parents.

"The genetic population in India is diverse, and this may be an advantage in stem cell work," he said.

Number of lines

The US announcement said Reliance had seven stem cell lines and NCBS three of the total 64 identified as qualifying for use in US federally funded research.

Panicker, who did his doctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, declined to say whether the centre had more stem cell lines.

The lines are owned by NCBS and a collaborator, whom Panicker declined to identify.

The national centre is part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and is principally funded by India's Department of Atomic Energy.

That department has been the target of U.S. sanctions imposed on India after the nation conducted a number of nuclear test explosions in May 1998.

Policy

The US announcement comes as India is close to formulating its own policy on stem cell research.

Manju Sharma, secretary in the Department of Biotechnology in Delhi, told Reuters by phone: "We have framed detailed guidelines which will be made official in a month or two."

"Our guidelines stipulate that embryonic stem cells have to be harvested with the informed consent of the donors, and donors will be entitled to compensation if therapies from their stem cell lines are commercialised," she said.

"Currently the US government has just taken note of the potential stem cell lines, and work here is at a very rudimentary stage."

Tell us what you think of this report