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India's Advinus inks $36M drug discovery pact with Takeda

India's biotech industry is better known for its contract research operations than novel drug development. But Advinus Pharma, a biotech company supported by the Tata group, is helping to change all that.

Advinus has won a $36 million pact with Takeda to hunt down new drugs for inflammatory diseases, CNS and metabolic disease. And in addition to the research funding, the biotech also stands to gain a $9 million milestone on candidate selection as well as up to $45 million in promised payments for each successfully developed compound to come out of the partnership.

"This deal is an indication that global pharma majors do not see India as a mere contract research destination," Rashmi Barbhaiya, M.D., of Advinus tells The Economic Times. "The technological capabilities differentiate us from China."

Advinus has research facilities near Mumbai and has its own pipeline of products that it hopes to partner out with global pharma players.

- here's the press release
- get the story from The Economic Times