Simbiosys Biowares Inc, a Texas-based contract research biotechnology firm, is setting up a knowledge process outsourcing arm in Bangalore.

The Indian subsidiary, Simbiosys Biowares India, which is awaiting regulatory clearance as a 100 per cent export-oriented unit, will house over 40 scientists at its Bangalore facility.

Simbiosys Biowares India, which apparently is the first fully-dedicated biotechnology KPO in the country, would cater mainly to research services in cell biology as well as a combination of cell biology, software and electronics, said Debashis Bhattacharya, president and CEO, Simbiosys Biowares, Inc.

The initial capital investment in the Indian outfit will be around Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) and the operational investment, depending on the projects, is likely to be 'substantial', Bhattacharya added. He added Simbiosys' India operation, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Simbiosys Biowares, would only undertake work for the US parent.

As the organisations in both US and India are pure-play service organisations, focused on delivering services to pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries, that require highly sophisticated cell biology expertise.

"We are putting in place business and technical practices that are at par with business and technical practices in US. For example, our standard operating procedures are being obtained in collaboration with and advise from US universities, and are being set up by top-level managers with multiple years of working experience in US industry and academia. Our business practices champion transparency, governance, and protection of intellectual property rights for our clients at par with the best practices in US industry," he added.

"Since the Indian KPO arm handles contracts signed by the US parent, a significant volume of those projects mainly that of multinational and US-based clients will be done at the Indian laboratory," he said.

Bhattacharya said that most technical people at the new Bangalore lab will, at the very least, be scientists with a Masters degree, adding, that around one quarter of the personnel will have PhDs from � US, Europe, Far East � and work experience abroad.

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