Eli Lilly ($LLY) is exiting a joint venture it started with India's Jubilant that set out to provide a low-cost outsourcing model for early-stage drug development work. An official for Jubilant Life Sciences confirmed a report in The Economic Times that it is buying out Lilly's share in the venture, which was dubbed Vanthys Pharmaceuticals.
"The joint venture, Vanthys Pharmaceuticals, will now be 100% owned by Jubilant Life," Jubilant's R. Sankaraiah tells Dow Jones. Vanthys got started in 2008, offering Lilly a shot at economically pushing through animal studies and Phase I, marrying Jubilant's low-cost R&D infrastructure with Lilly's expertise at drug development.
To get it started, both Jubilant and Lilly contributed a portfolio of molecules to the venture. Now some two dozen researchers in the unit will be absorbed back into Jubilant and India is left to ponder another setback in the subcontinent's quest to take a more prominent role in developing new therapeutics.
- read the story from Dow Jones
- here's the report from The Economic Times