Apollo Hospitals, in a joint venture with health science firm Saarum Innovations, has set up India’s first commercial bio-bank, which will provide cell-related research assistance to pharma companies and personalised medicine services for patients.
Sapien Biosciences, a 70:30 joint venture between Apollo and Saarum, has launched the bio-bank, which will house collections of high-quality samples under strict anonymity, along with associated medical data of the patients.
These will be used by pharma and biotech companies to conduct research.
“The research services are expected to speed up the drug discovery process, besides cutting costs,” Shobana Kamineni, Executive Director, Apollo Hospitals, told press persons here on Monday.
“However, we will only provide research services and not be involved in any particular drug discovery. We will also not be conducting any clinical trials.”
She said the joint venture will invest about Rs 25 crore in the next two years to scale up operations. Sapien will also use its research base to provide personalised treatment to patients. This involves detecting the patient’s genetic disposition for early diagnosis of diseases and any alteration required in treatment.
Sreevatsa Natarajan, CEO of Sapien, said the company will have access to the 50-odd hospitals of Apollo to collect samples and tissues for the bio-bank. It will also collect samples from some research-oriented hospitals and clinics for their personalised medicine and bio-banking needs.
Sapien has launched its first personalised product, MyPlatelet, which determines a patient’s response to blood-thinning medication. The product will measure the patient’s genetic make-up and suggest specific treatments.
“This is the only test in India that combines both genetic and platelet function response to enable tailored therapy for each patient,” said Jugnu Jain, Chief Scientific Officer of Sapien.
Though India has small bio-banks, this was the first commercial facility in the country, she said. There are an estimated 150 large bio-banks in the world, including commercial, non-commercial and not-for-profit units.