Apollo, Saarum Innovations team up to set up biobank

Apollo Hospitals has joined hands with health science firm Saarum Innovations to set up `Sapien Biosciences', a biobank that would offer a better understanding of various diseases and help them to provide personalised treatment and medication to patients.

Apollo Hospitals plan to invest Rs20-25 crore ($3-4 million) in the newly-formed subsidiary, which would facilitate new drug discovery and open up new treatment options.

Sapien Biosciences, through its world-class biobank, will provide cell-related research assistance to pharma companies and personalised medicine services for patients.

The joint venture bio-bank will house collections of high-quality, highly confidential human samples, along with associated medical data of the patients, which would be used for conducting new drug research for pharma and bio-tech companies.

''The research services are expected to speed up the drug discovery process, besides cutting costs. However, we will only provide research services and not be involved in any particular drug discovery. We will also not be conducting any clinical trials,'' Shobana Kamineni, executive director, Apollo Hospitals, said.

The joint venture will invest about Rs25 crore in the next two years to scale up operations, she added.

Sapien will also help identify a patient's genetic disposition for early diagnosis of diseases and to establish necessary alteration required in a patient's treatment.

The joint venture company will have access to the 50-odd Apollo hospitals for collection of human samples and tissues for the bio-bank. It will also collect samples from some research-oriented hospitals and clinics for their personalised medicine and bio-banking needs, Sreevatsa Natarajan, CEO of Sapien, said.

Sapient, meanwhile, launched its first personalised medical product, MyPlatelet, which determines the patient's response to their blood-thinning medication.

The Sapien product will measure the patient's genetic make-up and suggest specific treatments. Doctors prescribe blood thinning for cancer patients after a stroke, bypass or a stent.

Sapien is the first biobank to run on commercial scale in the country and Apollo has 70 per cent stake in the Sapien. Apart from finance, Apollo would also provide infrastructure support, resources and expertise to Saarum Innovation.