Jubilant buys Lilly out of early-phase JV
According to Dow Jones Newswire – the India-based contract services firm took control of the JV - Vanthys Pharmaceuticals – on Wednesday in a deal that is separate to an ongoing contract between its discovery subsidiary - Jubilant Biosys – and Lilly.
Details of the split are still sketchy – and Bangalore-based Jubilant had not responded to Outsorucing-pharma.com’s request for more information.
However, according to Lilly corporate affairs director Vineet Guptua who was quoted by Dow Jones, the “agreement between Lilly and Jubilant for Lilly to exit the joint venture is the next step in the evolution of the partnership as agreed by both companies.”
India’s Economic Times newspaper quotes ‘people familiar with the matter’ who said termination of the partnership was part of a normal ‘strategic review.’
The paper also reported that Vanthys’ employees – who under the JV’s previous structure had focused on taking preclinical candidates though to Phase II – will be ‘absorbed’ by Jubilant Biosys.
If this is accurate the Vanthys’ team will join the 400-staff already employed at the Biosys unit – also based in Bangalore – who provide discovery informatics, chemistry and in vitro development services to a number of drug industry clients – the newest of which is Netherlands-based Norgine.
Lilly outsourcing
Lilly’s withdrawal from the JV follows just a month after unconfirmed reports that the future of its early-phase development partnership with another Indian contract services firm - Zydus Cadila – is under threat.
Neither firm has commented on the speculation – although in its report the Economic Times suggests that differences over the direction of the project, coupled with rising costs are a source of disagreement between the two firms.
The end of the Vanthys JV also comes just weeks after another of Lilly’s discovery services contractor – ShangPharma – increased capacity in order to service the US drugmaker’s contract.
And while neither firm went into specifics ShangPharma CEO Michael Xin Hui said - when the expansion was announced in November last year - it will include in-vivo pharmacology, which is a similar area of focused to Lilly’s now defunct Vanthys JV.
