Headlines:Ocimum to acquire Microarray Assets of MWG Biotech AG
Source: Business Line

Ocimum Biosolutions, a leading provider of laboratory information management systems (LIMS), bioinformatics solutions and contract research, has signed a letter of intent (LOI) to acquire core assets of MWG Biotech AG's "Genomic Diagnosis" microarray business.

In the framework of the purchase, Ocimum will take over the microarray know-how, expertise and assets of the microarray business line, including inventory and stock. MWG Biotech's former "Genomic Diagnosis" employees are not part of the transaction. The new location of the microarray business will be in Hyderabad, India. Part of the services will also be offered from Indianapolis, US. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

"This transaction ensures that customers of MWG Biotech's microarrays and microarray services will continue to receive competent high quality products and services based on a strong bioinformatics backbone. We are happy that our innovative microarray line will now be further developed in the market by Ocimum," says Dr Wolfgang Pieken, speaker of the Management Board of MWG Biotech AG.

Ocimum's president, Subash Lingareddy, said, "This acquisition when completed would be consistent with our strategy to become an integrated genomics company providing innovative wet lab research tools, bio-IT solutions and contract research services to the Pharma and Biotech industries. We will also have immediate access to over 300 customers of MWG GD business and a proven technology platform."

Ocimum will take over MWG's portfolio of DNA chips on the complete genomes of a multitude of model organisms (including rat, mouse, zebra fish, etc.) as well as a DNA chips representing the complete human genome. As part of this deal, Ocimum will handle the business of custom arrays, chips made to customer specification, and the oligo sets for clients who want to produce their own chips. The services include hybridization services, which will be added to Ocimum's current microarray data analysis service. The focus is to be on outsourcing address for microarray experiments and enabling successful research and development of tomorrow's medicines by creating and providing disease specific topic arrays, a company release said.

DNA-Microarrays, also known as biochips, are tools of increasing importance for academia and industry for basic research and for increasing the understanding the influences of a multitude of factors on disease processes.

The markets for microarrays includes all aspects of molecular biology research in life sciences, including human disease research, genomics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, pharmacogenomics (how a person's genes affect the body's response to drug treatments), toxicogenomics (measurement of gene expression as a predictor of toxicity) and clinical diagnostics.

MWG Biotech AG is an international provider of DNA sequencing and DNA/siRNA synthesis services for academic and industrial research with production sites in Germany, the US, and India. In late 2004 the company initiated the transition from a diversified genomics products and services provider with four business units to its new focus on core genomics services for the research and diagnostic market.

Jhansi Biotech sets up Rs 2-crore R&D facility in Sri Lanka

Vijayawada March 11, 2005

Jhansi Biotech Private Limited, a consultancy group which supplies eco-friendly, anti-pollution technologies and a full range of bioproducts to select customers in West Asia, Africa, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Andhra Pradesh, has set up its office – Sri Bio-Tech Lanka Private Limited – at Hanwella, Sri Lanka, at an investment of Rs 2 crore.

The Sri Lankan office, which is also involved in research and development (R&D), has been set up in collaboration with an Australian company, Oceanic Fats and Oils Private Limited.

Speaking to Business Standard, M Lakshmi Prasad, group managing director and principal scientist, said: “At present, Jhansi Biotech is running two R&D centres – Sasya Bioremedies and Sujay Agri Labs – in the state. While the group invested Rs 2 crore in them, another Rs 2 crore was invested in the Sri Lankan unit. The two units in Andhra Pradesh achieved a business of Rs1 crore last fiscal and the figure is likely to be the same this fiscal too.”

“While the labs have researched, developed and manufactured bioproducts, Jhansi Biotech supplies the technologies to customers for managing environment by treating organic effluents in para-boiled rice, brawn oil, oil palm and ginning mills, distilleries, confectioneries, rubber waste, tea refuse, sugar factories and municipal sewerages. The group also sells biofertilisers, biopesticides, botanical pesticides, biofungicides, bionematicides, and biodegraders and bioremediation solutions. It provides soil, water and wastewater testing services as well.”

Jhansi Biotech is also planning to patent some of its products. According to Lakshmi Prasad, the company has developed a carrier-medium ‘Micro Power’ from the used bacteria found in the sludge of Black Sea in Israel.

“These bacteria identify and remove harmful bacteria and other pollutants and completely detoxify any sludge in a short time at a cheaper cost. Pharma companies find detoxification of sludge formed during manufacture of antibiotics an expensive affair, and that's why many of them are shifting units to Visakhapatnam so that they can dump the sludge in sea there. Under such circumstances, Micro Power would be the natural choice for the Hyderabad,” he said.

Eichornia classicrapsipes (gurrapu dekka), Lakshmi Prasad said, is a much feared weed, which grows rampantly everywhere in Andhra Pradesh. But its widespread long and thick roots are storehouses of a number of useful bacteria. The group’s scientists developed an anti-pollutant product out of the weed. They also developed a drug from yeast, which improves digestion tremendously besides controlling diarrhoea in humans. The group is striving to establish an integrated biotechnological laboratory for facilitating production of all types of bioproducts in a single entity,” he said.