Merck opens up Bengaluru centre for collaboration with Indian pharma firms

Merck, the world’s oldest pharmaceutical and chemicals company, has opened up its centre in Bengaluru to Indian pharmaceutical companies as they move to biologics-based manufacturing.

Daniel Stamm, Head of Global Process Solutions Commercial of Lifesciences, Merck, told BusinessLine , “We see a trend of Indian companies not just taking a chemical formula and replicating it, and instead moving to biologics-based manufacturing.”

Industry watchers opine that Indian companies have started to take this route in an attempt to move up the pharmaceutical value chain.

By opening up its lab facility to other drugs manufacturers, Merck also believes that it can handhold Indian companies – from discovery to the final technology transfer. A lot of times, small pharma companies discovery a molecule but do not have a good understanding of how to manufacture it.

“From growing the cell, extracting medicinal value to the tech transfer, we can assist Indian companies,” said Stamm.

Further, scientists and engineers from Merck can aid companies working to solve biomanufacturing challenges and help themaccelerate development of new therapies.

“Companies can manufacture biosimilars in 6-9 months, compared to 3 years in the past, enabling them to go to market quicker,” said Stamm. This can also result in reduced costs for medicines, he added.

M Lab Collaboration centres provide a simulated manufacturing environment for experiments, troubleshooting and problem solving, that can foster education and full end-to-end process development support.

Further, customers can participate in product demonstrations, hands-on training and proof-of-concept work, as well as apply best practices and new approaches to develop, optimise and scale-up processes and simplify global technology transfer.

So, what happens in case of IP issues? Stamm said the question of IP rarely comes up. “There are few situations like that. We sign NDAs and do not access information of a customer,” he said.

Merck has been doing this for many years in developed markets but has just now started this in India. Merck unveiled its first remodelled centre in Tokyo in June 2016 and the M Lab network, will also include locations in Brazil, China, France, India, Singapore, South Korea and the US. Recently, it kicked off similar efforts in South Korea and Spain.

Biotech is growing in India and as per data from Association of Biotechnoogy Led Enterprises, there are 1,022 biotech companies generating around ₹18,700 crore in business.