The venture, in which Tatas' have already infused $15 million (nearly Rs 70 crore), would focus on drug discovery and development of pharmaceutical and agrochemical products.
The company, whose Pune drug discovery facility was inaugurated on August 3, is also planning to set up an R&D centre in Bangalore with an investment of $5 million.
"The Group has been keen on developing businesses in the knowledge sector and the investment in Advinus is seen as a part of this focus. It is also believed that Advinus is the first step towards the Tata Group's re-entry into the pharmaceutical industry," sources close to the development told PTI.
The Pune facility, which was inaugurated by the Group chairman Ratan Tata, will be the nerve centre of the drug discovery activities being undertaken by the company.
Located in the Biotech park in Pune, the facility is spread over an area of 20,000 sq ft and will undertake novel drug discovery and generate IP primarily in the area of metabolic diseases and inflammation.
The facility currently has 55 scientists in various streams and the company will increase its headcount to 550 over the next four years.
Advinus is also gearing up with another large operation in Bangalore, set over an eight-acre campus with over 180,000 sq. ft of built up space, where it offers end-to-end pharmaceutical R&D services in the pre-clinical and early clinical part of the R&D value chain.
It is learnt that the company has invested to the tune of $5 million for this facility, in addition to the erstwhile Rallis Research Centre facility located at Peenya, which the company acquired last year for Rs 26 crore (Rs 260 million).
Looking ahead into the future, the Group is committed to being in new high technology and knowledge-based industries and Pharma is one such area.
Backed by its strong team and infrastructure, we believe that Advinus will partner global majors in creating value from their research efforts and improve the quality of life, group Chairman Ratan Tata had said.
According to estimates, the global R&D spend, which stood at $20 billion in 1990, touched $50 billion in 2002 and is now estimated to be around $65 billion.
Analysts said the size of domestic contract research industry was Rs 480 crore (Rs 4.8 billion) and they predicted that the sector is likely to grow by 80 per cent.
