Mar 7, 2007, 14:15 GMT
Kolkata, March 7 (IANS) Healthcare major Johnson & Johnson Ltd is keen to set up its second research and development (R&D) hub in India in the eastern region.
'If the research work could be done in Kolkata or somewhere in West Bengal the charges of medicines and other healthcare services will definitely come down in this part of India,' A.S. Krishna, director, government affairs, Johnson & Johnson Ltd, said at a seminar Wednesday on the Indo-US economic cooperation here.
The company is also looking for a site to set up its proposed unit somewhere near Kolkata, he said.
Johnson & Johnson is one of the world's largest healthcare service companies and already has an R&D clinical developing unit in India - Global Clinical Organisation (GCO) - in Mumbai.
This unit is undertaking all the research works for Johnson & Johnson in India and has 100 employees.
'Since we are looking for tie-ups with private companies in India for project-based collaborations, we are expecting to increase our staff strength from 100 to 500-600 five years down the line,' said Krishna.
He said the company invested $7.5 billion globally for R&D projects of which India shared $15-20 million in 2006.
Speaking about Johnson & Johnson's ongoing R&D projects in Delhi, Mumbai and south India, Krishna said the company's next investment would be on increasing the manpower and developing equipment in India.
'The investment for the R&D projects in India has not been finalised so far but it will obviously depend upon the projects coming in future,' he said.
'Talks are on with three to four companies. We recently had a talk with the Chatterjee Group for a project-based collaboration in the eastern region as part of our global development projects but nothing has been finalised yet,' Krishna said.
© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service
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