Dr Reddy’s licenses insulin molecule to Novartis
Hyderabad: In yet another breakthrough, the third so far, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories today licensed its insulin sensitiser, codenamed DRF 4158, to Novartis Pharma. Under this deal, Dr. Reddy’s will get $55 million in upfront and milestone payments for specific clinical and regulatory endpoints. In return, Novartis will get exclusive worldwide rights for development and commercialisation of the molecule. Dr. Reddy’s is also likely to get royalty payments on the commercial sale of the molecule.

DRL will have co-promotion rights for DRF 4158 in India, subject to regulatory clearance in US. DRF 4158 is currently in pre-clinical evaluation, prior to its entry into clinical trials in humans.

Dr. Anji Reddy, chairman of the company, stated that this move was very significant in the company’s emergence as a research-based pharma company. DRL has earmarked $30 million for undertaking drug discovery research.
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Reliance Info pushes for broadband service to corporates
Chennai: The ambitious communications initiative from the Reliance group is seeking to provide corporates in Chennai with broadband service through its optic fibre network. It is understood that some leading corporates have already offered Reliance Infocom the private right of way that enables it to provide a seamless last mile connectivity.

Reliance Infocom is in the process of establishing an extensive optic fibre network that seeks to cover 60,000 kms across the country with a coverage of 115 cities.

Reliance Infocom hopes it will be in a position to complete work on most of the stretches in the state of Tamil Nadu by August 15, 2001.
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Casio to set up software development centre
New Delhi: Japanese electronics giant, Casio, is setting up a software development centre in India to produce embedded software for the company’s digital products.

Commencing initially with 50 engineers, the centre will not only develop software for the current digital products that Casio has in the global market, but also do research on future products of the company.

Simultaneously, Casio has taken 100 per cent stake in its Indian arm, by buying out the Japanese engineering major Mitsui, which had a 3 per cent stake in Casio India.

Casio, whose Indian subsidiary has been in operation since 1996, has its manufacturing facilities at Udyog Vihar in Gurgaon. The company is currently engaged in the manufacture of digital diaries, calculators and electronic music instruments, like synthesizers.

The company also exports these items from India. Besides, Casio is also involved in the manufacture of watches and other kinds of time pieces in the country. Casio is also involved in the manufacture and marketing of radio pagers.
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Birla AT&T to build 3 cellular highway corridors
Ahmedabad: In order to provide seamless services across 1,500 kms of important highways in Gujarat, Birla AT&T is to set up three new cellular corridors that would cover the highways.

These corridors have been divided into three sections - Saurashtra corridor, Rajasthan Corridor and Madhya Pradesh Corridor.
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Skanska makes open offer for Kvaerner
Mumbai: Swedish major, Skanska Europe, has decided to make an open offer to the Indian shareholders of Kvaerner Cementation India after its bid to get indirect control of the Indian company ran foul of the shareholders.

Skanska Europe AB will now make an open offer to acquire the entire stake in Kvaerner Cementation India Ltd at a price of Rs 151 per share. The offer will, thus, be for the entire 35.62 per cent stake held by the public, instead of just 20 per cent as required by the Sebi guidelines.

The offer, to be managed by Jardine Fleming, is set to open on June 12, 2001 and close on August 10, 2001.

The move by Skanska follows its global takeover of Kvaerner Cementation’s parent company, Kvaerner Construction Group.
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Dabur CGU applies for permission in life insurance
New Delhi: Dabur CGU, the joint venture between FMCG major, Dabur India and the British insurer, CGU, has applied to the IRDA for permission to set up a life insurance venture in the country.

The company joins the ranks of several Indian and overseas firms to apply for a licence to operate an insurance company. IRDA has cleared around 13 applications so far.

India's insurance business, which was privatised recently after decades of state control, has caught the fancy of several leading Indian business groups seeking to diversify.
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Mobile claims services from Tata-AIG
New Delhi: Private insurer, Tata-AIG launched its "mobile claims service" in four metro cities and Bangalore and Hyderabad for quick settlement of customer claims.

This move is based on the company’s belief that if a customer has a claim it should go to the customer instead of making the customer come to the company. As per the scheme, in case of an accident wherein a person is hospitalised on account of injury, a Tata-AIG official will visit the person.

Similarly, in case a person is injured and his car damaged in an accident, the company will arrange for physical inspection of the car.
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Chateau Indage to market imported wines
Mumbai: Domestic wine major, Chateau Indage, is understood to have entered into an agreement with Chilean Vineyard for marketing Chilean wines in India.

The company is also likely to help export the Chilean wines to the parts of the world where it has already made a significant inroad.

Chateau Indage, which has tied up with Californian, German and French wineries, produces a range of quality, still and sparkling wines. It is the only winery in Asia and the ninth in the world to produce quality sparking wines.

The wine market in India is still in its infancy where 5 lakh cases of wine and 30,000 cases of sparkling wine and champagne are sold annually in the country as compared to 37 million cases of whisky, 11 million cases of brandy and 9 million cases of rum.

However, the wine market is growing at 30 per cent annually according to various studies.
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Cadila Pharma launches purified insulin
Ahmedabad: Domestic pharma major, Cadilla Pharmaceuticals, has launched highly purified insulin at affordable prices in collaboration with a Polish pharma company, Polfa Tarchomin.

Cadila Pharma Ltd’s (CPL) insulin range comprising Rapisulin (short acting porcine insulin) and Lentisulin (immediate acting porcine insulin), will now be available in two purity forms. These are believed to be of highest quality and is extremely economical compared to products currently available in the Indian market.

Of the overall diabetic population, only a handful can afford the presently available insulin therapy due to cost constraints. The insulin preparations currently available in the market are priced on the basis of sources and purity levels. Bovine insulin is available from Rs 80 to Rs 114, porcine insulin is available between Rs 120 and Rs 150 while human insulin prices vary from Rs 180 to Rs 250.

The new drugs from the Cadila stable — Rapisulin HPI and Lentisulin HPI —both highly purified insulin are being priced at Rs 110.50 whereas Rapisulin CPI and Lentisulin CPI (chromatographically purified insulin) are being priced at Rs 78.52.
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Indian Hotels to get share of ITDC sale proceeds
New Delhi: Tata Group company, Indian Hotels, which owns a 10 per cent stake in Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) will get its share of the proceeds of the divestment of state shareholding in the company in proportion to its shareholding.

The government plans to sell its entire stake in ITDC hotels, barring a few which will be run on long-term lease cum management basis. The government plans to demerge individual properties before selling them and these demerged units will have mirror holdings.

Since the Tata Group would hold 10 per cent of each of the demerged properties, thus preventing many a potential bidder from being interested in these, the government has decided to offer the Tatas 10 per cent of the proceeds from sale of the hotels. It is understood that the Tatas are amenable to this proposal and have given their approval to the government.

The government has invited expressions of interest (EOI) for 17 of ITDC's 26 hotels. Of the 300 EOIs received, 200 have been shortlisted, say officials.
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Microsoft launches $50 million campaign to woo messenger customers
New York: The war to lure customers to messenger services has become more aggressive. Software giant, Microsoft, launched a $50 million advertising campaign to lure customers from rival AOL, a week after the latter raised prices for its messenger services.

Microsoft is promising customers who switch to MSN by June 30 that they will receive three months of free internet access as well as a guaranteed rate of $21.95 a month until January 1, 2003. This prices is lower than the recently-hiked price of $23.90 of rival AOL.

While industry experts do not believe that this campaign is going to make any significant impact in terms of number of new customers, Microsoft has stated that its call centres hav already received 50 per cent more calls from prospective customers.

The advertising campaign represents the first time that online companies in the US are aggressively poaching from each other’s markets.
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