The, as yet unconfirmed, speculation is that Biocon is seeking to make an investment in privately-owned Siro in a bid to expand its Clingene contract research services business.
Siro spokesman Aniruddh Patwardhan confirmed that talks are ongoing, but declined to provide any additional information when contacted by Outsourcing-pharma.
Speaking to the Economic Times, Biocon chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said: “We are looking at an alliance with Siro Clinpharm that could entail bundling of complementary services.”
She added however that: “These are ongoing discussions [and] no alliance has fructified yet.”
Fructified or otherwise, an alliance would certainly provide a boost for Clinigene, given both Siro’s expertise and experience in conducting late phase clinical trials and considerable global reach.
Earlier this month the Indian contract research organisation (CRO) rebranded and relaunched trials units in Germany, Greece, Romania, Estonia and Israel that it gained in 2008 with the acquisition of German counterpart Omega Mediation .
Siro also has partnerships with UK regulatory affairs specialist CambReg and French early-stage contract drug development group Mediscis Medical Science Services.
For Bangalore-based Biocon, access to such a European network would provide an attractive way of expanding its CRO business, particularly at a time when demand for clinical trials in central and Eastern Europe is strong.
Outside Europe, Siro has a relationship with US group Advanced Clinical Trial Solutions (ACT) focused on the provision of trial services for the development of anti-cancer drugs.