Economic Times, India
Wednesday, July 30, 2003  -  Updated at 15:52 hrs IST

Reliance Life leads a biotech revolution
ADITYA CHATTERJEE

In another 22 years India will have the largest number of diabetes, cardiac and stroke patients in the world. It is
estimated that India will have 57 million cases of diabetes, which is an increase of 148 per cent over the current
figure of 23 million diabetics.

Already, India has three times more patients of chronic heart diseases than the West. And half a million people die
every year of strokes in India.

If this is the case with India alone, it is not difficult to extrapolate the extent of the spectre on a global scale.

Amazingly, however, India is also at the forefront of the race to find a cure for these killer diseases. Today, the
therapeutic potential of embryonic stem cells to battle ailments such as diabetes, chronic heart disease and stroke is
well established. It is believed that stem cell research holds the key to replacing cells destroyed by the killer
diseases, and billions of dollars are being spent globally to contain the killers.

In India, Reliance Life Sciences, a company promoted by the Ambani family, is doing path-breaking R&D work in this
area. In 2001, the company, along with the Bangalore-based National Centre for Biological Sciences, was recognised by
the US-based National Institute of Health as among the 10 global companies and research institutions working in the
area of embryonic stem cells.

This development alone has placed Reliance Life, then a young company, in the global league of players in the area of
biotechnology, particularly in cell biology. Over the next few years, Reliance Life plans to invest $25 million in cell
biology research and has earmarked $50 million for setting up a research complex near Mumbai.

A recent CII-Rabo India study lists Reliance Life Sciences as one of the most important players in the fledgling Indian
biotech sector. It is companies like Reliance Life - along with Dr Reddy's Laboratory, Shantha Biotechnics, Biocon and
others - which are expected to lead the Indian biotech sector to an exponential growth over the next five years.

Currently, the Indian share in the global biotech market is a mere one per cent; it is expected to grow to 10 per cent
in another five years.

Reliance Life, incorporated in January 2001, runs a cell biology research centre in Mumbai which is widely regarded as
the first of its kind in Asia. The cell biology centre focuses on research and development in stem cells and tissue
engineering. Various teams in the centre are engaged in the areas of assisted reproduction, embryonic stem cells,
haematopoietic stem cells, skin cells, genetics, molecular diagnostics, gene therapy and tissue engineering.

For the uninitiated, the speciality of stem cells is that they are undifferentiated and immortal. They have the unique
ability to grow into different types of cells and regenerate cells or tissues. The Reliance centre aims to deliver
novel, affordable cell-based therapies and engineer tissues to address yet-to-be-met medical needs in the Indian and
global healthcare markets.

Therapies developed by this centre would provide better alternatives to existing medical approaches such as stem cell
enriched cord blood transplant versus bone marrow transplant; cultured skin versus wound dressing or offer new
therapies such as gene-based therapies.

Says Dr Firuza Parikh, founder director of Reliance Life Sciences and research director for assisted reproduction and
embryonic stem cells: "We are in a very exciting era in medical science. Our team is looking at novel cures for
diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's by harnessing the property of immortality of stem cells."

The company has reportedly developed cardiac stem cell lines and is in the process of approaching regulatory bodies in
India and abroad to obtain clearance to start the clinical programme. Industry sources say the company has already
filed for an US patent for the cardiomyocytes-based therapy. If the effort meets with success, it will be another
milestone in Reliance Life's ambitious stem cell research programme. The company has already developed seven embryonic
cell lines.

Experts say transplanted stem cells can offer a better solution to injured heart muscles and can help improve the
cardiac function following a heart attack. Leading medical practitioners say cardiomyocytes can prevent the development
of a congestive heart failure. For extremely bad cardiac conditions, where heart muscles are weak, or when the patient
cannot undergo an angioplasty or even a bypass surgery, the cardiomyocytes-based therapy can work wonders.

Reliance Life is also credited with creating one of the largest cord blood repositories in the world, as part of the
cell biology centre. The repository would cryopreserve stem cell enriched cord blood at minus 196 degrees Celsius in a
computer controlled robotics-based bio-archive system. As an adjunct to the cord blood repository, Reliance Life is
also creating a molecular diagnostics facility for HLA typing and infectious diseases testing.

Dr S G A Rao, research director for haematopoietic stem cells and cord blood repository, is very passionate about
developing cures to life-threatening diseases. In his perspective, stem cell enriched cord blood units from the cord
blood repository could be used for treating a range of diseases such as thallasaemia, hemophilia, leukaemia, sickle
cell anaemia, Fanconi's anaemia and stroke.

According to him, the repository will eventually offer services in expansion and storage of stem cells from peripheral
blood stem cells for patients who are to undergo aggressive chemotherapy.

The cell biology centre at Mumbai would have a facility to make cultured skin -- covering cultured epidermis, cultured
dermis and composite skin. Cultured skin has a strong value proposition in treating burns, vitiligo and in cosmetology.
This will be the first facility for cultured skin in India.

The company, in fact, is set to begin clinical trials of its genetically engineered skin products soon. The trials on
the genetically engineered skin will take place at multiple centres. The skin cell research area will even extend to
cosmetology.

One skin product that is under development has cultured epithelia - the outermost layer of the skin - and could be used
as a dressing in partial thickness burns, diabetic ulcers and bed sores. Another product - a tissue-engineered
biodegradable skin product - could be useful for healing deep and persistent wounds like venous ulcers and deep burns.
This product consists of dermal cells producing a metabolically active tissue, which can be implanted into the wound.
The skin cells colonise the wound and result in rapid healing.

Research director for skin and tissue engineering, Dr Manoj Mojamdar, plans to use the cultured skin to address the
problems of morbidity and mortality for burn patients. He says about 300 patients die of burns in India everyday. "I
feel the value proposition for cultured skin is strong, given the ability to treat patients with very high degree of
burns. With cultured skin, patients can avoid hospital infection and reduce hospital stay, and there are consequent
benefits of lower overall costs and higher bed turnover as well,” he says.

The facility also hosts a comprehensive genetics centre, which would be involved in pre-natal and post-natal genetic
diagnosis, cancer genetics and micro-array-based screening for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.

The cell biology centre currently has a team strength of 51 members. Of these, 30 are technically qualified and include
20 PhDs and four MDs.

The company has already received the Drug Controller General of India's (DCGI) approval for manufacture and marketing
of stem cells created from umbilical cord blood. The product - Relicord - is used as an adjuvant therapy for
thalassemia and leukaemia.

The approval makes Reliance Life the first company to get the permit to produce and sell stem cells in India. Blood
enriched with these stem cells can be a life-saver for thalassemic children and blood cancer patients. Reliance has
also filed for international patents for Relicord and is in the process of filing for regulatory approval by US-FDA and
other national regulatory agencies for marketing nod.

Thalassemic children need regular blood transfusion, as an adjuvant therapy with chemotherapy. Stem cells from single
placenta are found to be enough to regenerate the immune system of the thalassemic child.  Reliance, which along with
the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, was recognised by the National Institute of Health of US as
amongst the global agencies that have a credible collection of stem cell lines, is also into creation of sterile media
for stem cell preservation.

In the second phase of the cell biology initiative, Reliance Life would establish a full-fledged regenerative medicine
centre in Mumbai. This facility will have a dedicated clinical environment for development and application of cell
transplants and research labs for additional disciplines such as pancreatic, hepatic and retinal stem cells.

The embryonic stem cell group is also focussing on basic research such as gene discovery, drug discovery and
establishment of several transformed cell lines. Reliance Life has seven cell lines. Four of them are in the fourth
passage and three are in the early stage. Company sources said, once these cell lines are fully characterised, Reliance
would work on differentiating them to pancreatic and cardiomyocyte cells to address cell-based therapies for diabetes
and cardiovascular diseases.

The Reliance senior management is very bullish on these biotech projects. K V Subramaniam, senior executive vice-
president, corporate business development of Reliance Industries, says: "The cell biology initiative is uniquely
integrated - both horizontally, across several cell biology disciplines and vertically, from repository infrastructure
through basic and applied research to the clinical environment." Incidentally, Reliance Industries has the option of
being an investor in Reliance Life at a later stage.

Reliance Life Sciences would also be taking initiatives in other areas of biotechnology, covering the medical, plant
and industrial spectra. The company is in the process of finalising these plans.

The future could see the company accessing the US, European, West Asian and South-East Asian markets. Reliance Life is
open to strategic alliances, including equity participation, cross licensing, co-development of products and
technologies, and also accessing patent portfolios.

Expect Reliance Life to be engineering its future with the same cutting edge technology that it uses in its labs.

SOURCE: Economic Times, India
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=89055

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