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Bangalore, India
January 5, 2007
Avesthagen is proud to
announce that the Indian Patent Office has granted a patent to
the company on ‘cloning and sequencing of AGTSAL 11 rice gene
from IR-64 variety implicated in salinity stress tolerance’.
This invention will open up the opportunities in developing salt
tolerant lines in rice in India. The Salt Tolerance Program is a
breakthrough for the agricultural industry, since the present
agricultural practices and the increasing use of chemical
fertilizers makes a large part of the arable land unfavorable
for cultivation due to high salinity. Moreover, it could be
transferred to any other crop within a short time span as the
technology is not crop specific.
Dr. Villoo Morawala Patell, Vice Chairman & Managing Director,
Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt. Ltd, says “We are thrilled
by this grant. This patent’s technology will help Avesthagen to
develop innovative solutions to benefit farmers”.
This patent follows close to the previous granting of patents to
Avesthagen in South Africa and Australia entitled ‘A process for
generating genetically modified pearl millet through
Agrobacterium and biolistic transformation.’ Over the years
Avesthagen has made numerous inventions and now it has a
significant portfolio of 137 patent applications of which 61
relate to Agri-Biotech domain. This patent positioning gives
Avesthagen substantial freedom to operate in Agricultural
domain. ‘We constantly aim to produce breakthrough solutions
that are advantageous for our end users and this patent restates
our commitment.’
Avesthagen was founded in 1998 by one of India’s pioneers and
leading biotech entrepreneurs Dr. Villoo Morawala-Patell, who
got her Ph.D from Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg,
France, in 1993. It began business operations officially in
2001.
Since its inception Avesthagen has grown into one of India's
leading healthcare technology group in India, and its activities
include, in addition to its agri-biotechnologies product
pipeline, development of scientifically validated bioactive
nutraceuticals, derived from Indian medicinal plants, as well as
the development of a pipeline of bio-similar drugs. Avesthagen
has four strategic business units: Biopharmaceuticals, Food For
Medicine (Nutraceuticals), Seed For Food (agribiotech) and
Science Innovation. Avesthagen's partners include multiple top
10 global companies in each of its fields of research.
Avesthagen collaborates at every stage in the value chain with
appropriate partners, both public and private, for access to and
exchange of technology and overall commercial expertise to
leverage the ‘India advantage’. Avesthagen employs 250 people
worldwide. For Avesthagen on the web:
www.avesthagen.com |
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