Joining the bandwagon of IT majors such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant and IBM, Satyam Computer Services is all set to explore the life sciences business. Betting big on this segment, the company will soon be entering biotechnology field in a big way to offer services in the form of bioinformatics which would ideally help in drug discovery processes and in core manufacturing as well. Besides, the company is also looking at striking deals in this segment in the near future.
?We are looking at opportunities in the biotech segment which is the next wave in the life sciences division,?? Ram Mynampati, president, Satyam Computer said. The company would be integrating its bioinformatics division which is currently having over 20 people. ?In fact, we have already started working with a few companies in the country and there are a few small deals to this effect,?? Mynampati said. Towards this, the company would be ramping up more people for the biotech services foray to encompass the biological information through data storage and interpretation with the influence of information technology.
According to Mynampati, the company had earlier signed an MoU with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for developing a bioinformatics team. However, the growth period was then slow, but it is now in the process of developing solutions to facilitate the pharma industry. In the lifesciences division, the company is working with over 28 customers and has segregated it into three divisions which include R&D for facilitating new clinical trials and drug discovery research, core manufacturing and automation of non-core business processes.
Incidentally, bioinformatics has become the catch word for the IT majors. While this marks the foray into the biotechnology, the business involves gene mapping, proteomics, DNA micro array, genome sequences analysis, comparative genomics, molecular modelling and simulation, protein functions, etc for exploiting the business potential by the IT companies.