Sun Pharma and Technion form oncology research pact
pharmafile | April 16, 2015 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Cancer, Sun Pharma, institute of technology, oncology, technion
Mumbai-based Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries is teaming up with the Israel Institute of Technology Technion to develop new oncology drugs.
This agreement aims at the development of a joint project, based on new findings by Nobel Prize laureate Professor Aaron Ciechanover, Dr Gila Maor and Professor Ofer Binah – that can potentially lead to the development of novel anti-cancer drugs.
“We are very excited about this new endeavour between Sun Pharma, with the Technion. We are confident that this collaboration will help us move rapidly forward with our research” note Ciechanover and Binah. “We explored several collaboration alternatives, but Sun Pharma’s market leadership and its long term commitment have made this collaboration a very high priority for us.”
Whilst no financial details have been unveiled, the news leads to an unusual pairing between Sun Pharma as the world’s fifth largest speciality generic pharma company and India’s top drug firm – with the oldest university in Israel’s Technion, that was founded back in 1912.
Sun Pharma just recently closed its mega merger deal with fellow Indian giant Ranbaxy and began the integration of the two businesses. The firm says the combined force will now allow it to expand its R&D capabilities, increase its presence in emerging markets, and ‘strengthen its M&A bandwidth’.
Both Sun and Ranbaxy have provoked the ire of regulators over the past year with escalating manufacturing woes, as well as claims of insider dealing that almost brought the merger to an end. The deal was signed off by the US Federal Trade Commission in February.
This latest move sees the company aiming towards fruitful ties however, as its senior VP of business development Kirti Ganorkar notes: “This collaboration is part of the various initiatives that Sun Pharma is taking to enhance its specialty pipeline. Mutually beneficial partnerships with independent research institutes, especially world renowned institutes, such as the Technion, is our preferred route to bring to the market, innovative products for unmet medical needs.”
Brett Wells
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