SYNGENE INTERNATIONAL

Syngene International Ltd., Asia’s largest contract research organization, said it has purchased assets of Strand Life Sciences related to systems biology, Heptox and Pharma Bioinformatics services. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition includes target dossier business and rights to NGS data analytics and Sarchitect platforms, supported by a strong scientific team. Syngene International Limited, is one of Asia’s largest contract research organizations. It provides discovery and developmental services for new molecular entities across multiple platforms including small molecules, large molecules, antibody-drug conjugates, etc. In FY2016, Syngene serviced 256 clients including 8 of the top 10 global pharma companies. Strand Life Sciences is a global genomic profiling company and offers medicine diagnostics, aimed at empowering cancer care and genetic testing for inherited diseases. “Given the vast volumes of genetic material sequence data that is being generated globally, there is an increasing focus on biological information management and data analytics in drug discovery and development," said Jonathan Hunt, Chief Executive Officer, Syngene International. This deal gives Syngene access to Strand’s patented Virtual Liver model and the NGS analytics platform. The Virtual Liver model is able to predict the toxic effect of different drugs or chemicals on the liver (both rat and human) using information from laboratory- based experiments prior to actual testing on live animals or humans. Strand NGS is an integrated platform that provides analysis, management and visualization tools for next-generation sequencing data. "Syngene is constantly looking for new opportunities to expand its service offerings into areas such as NGS, translational R&D, predictive toxicology and pre-emptive target validation services, all of which require strong bioinformatics capabilities. We believe Strand’s bioinformatics platforms not only complement our existing integrated service platforms but will also meet our customers growing needs for bioinformatics and data analytic support," he further said. Bioinformatics is a rapidly emerging area that promises tremendous growth potential. Companies involved in pharmaceutical, cosmetics, FMCG and agro-biotech R&D have strong focus on genomics, and need sound bioinformatics applications and platforms for developing better therapeutics and products. According to transparency market research, the global bioinformatics market was estimated at $2.3 billion in 2012 and is forecasted to reach a market size of $9.1 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 25.4%. “The deal with Syngene gives Syngene access to technologies from Strand to form part of its integrated discovery service offerings. This transaction is also a key step for Strand to focus its energies on personalized medicine through clinical applications of all its genomics technologies,” added Chairman and Managing Director of Strand Life Sciences, Dr. Vijay Chandru. Strand works with physicians and hospitals to enable faster clinical decision support for accurate molecular diagnosis, prognosis, therapy recommendations, and clinical trials.

Tag: SYNGENE INTERNATIONAL

Syngene International buys systems biology and pharma services assets of Strand Life Sciences