The New Lure

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Perlecan Pharma has in-licensed four new chemical entities (NCE) in the area of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. The company’s key objective is to advance the clinical development of NCE assets through Phase II and thereafter seek out-licensing, co-development or joint commercialisation opportunities.

ChrysCapital has invested $25 million in Mankind Pharma, a leading Indian pharmaceutical company. Buoyed by the funding, Mankind Pharma has registered strong domestic sales of its products like condoms, emergency contraceptives and home pregnancy kits. It is now aiming to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore by 2010.

Similarly, Ocimum Biosolutions, Hyderabad-based genomics outsourcing company, has raised $17 million from Kubera Cross-Border Fund Ltd, an India-focused investment company. The fund raised is largely to finance its recent acquisition of US-based Gene Logic’s genomic business. This is the second round of fund raising for Ocimum. In November last year, the company had raised $6.5 million from International Finance Corp.

Kotak Private Equity, which holds a majority stake in CRO major SIRO Clinpharm, has been exploring several opportunities in the CRO space globally. “We have been looking at similar opportunities through VLife Sciences, a drug discovery company and Metahelix and agri-biotech company,” says Deshmukh. Other good examples of successful investments have been Sun Pharma (ICICI Ventures), Nicholas Piramal (Warburg Pincus), Apollo Hospitals (Apax Partners) and Max Healthcare (IFC).

Therefore, the message going out is loud and clear. Investment climate is optimistic and there is a growing belief that India could command a much more prominent position in the global life sciences industry across the value chain in pharma and biotech from basic research, drug discovery, and clinical trials to being a technology provider and manufacturing base, says Anuradha Acharya, founder and CEO, Ocimum Biosolutions.

That’s not all. Emerging segments like diagnostic chains, medical device manufactures as well as hospital chains are increasingly attracting investments from a variety of PE players. At a broader level, this trend in health care is often seen as a manifestation of the overall surge in private equity and also growing interest among private equity funds for Indian companies, which have a direct interface with the consumer. Some of the new targets and focus areas of private equity funds are pharmacy retail chains, health and wellness centres, spas, ayurvedic and herbal skin, slimming and beauty centres which are primarily consumer-oriented sectors, says Ritika Arora, healthcare consultant at Technopak.