Thursday, September 11, 2008

Orchid plans to sell 15-20% stake in research unit

Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (Orchid) is considering selling stake in its research subsidiary by next year.A strategic investor may also be considered for Orchid Research Laboratories.However, before the fund-raising, Orchid plans value addition through work on molecules.

Orchid Research operates in four therapeutic areas — diabetes, pain, oncology and infectious diseases — at its two R&D centres at Sholinganallur and Irungattukottai in Chennai.The therapeutic areas have lead molecules which will go into trials by next year.

This would be the value-add after which Orchid Research would look at generating funds to meet the demands of the molecules, Rao said.Hence, putting a number on the amount of funds raised would be premature now.
The company currently invests 5-6% of its revenue every year for research and development, which was Rs 60 crore last year.

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