C-CAMP teams up with global tech firm to make drug testing more accessible

Bengaluru: The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) Tuesday said it has deepened its partnership with American laboratory technology giant Agilent Technologies, giving a far wider range of Indian researchers access to some of the most sophisticated drug-testing equipment in the world, without having to buy it themselves.

Think of it as a library, but for multimillion-dollar scientific instruments. The arrangement matters because cutting-edge drug development has long been gated by the cost of specialist equipment.

Small biotech startups and university researchers with promising ideas but limited budgets have typically had to go without, or go abroad. This partnership changes that calculus, C-CAMP said, allowing them to book time on advanced machines housed at its Bengaluru facility.

“The collaboration is already delivering results. In its first phase, the partnership helped Indian scientists fully characterise Liraglutide — a drug widely used to treat diabetes and obesity — using equipment provided by Agilent. The work met international regulatory standards, a significant achievement for a molecule developed and tested entirely within India,” C-CAMP said.

The expanded tie-up will now cover a broader range of drug types, including the complex biological medicines that are increasingly at the frontier of treatments for cancer, rare diseases and infectious conditions.

The two organisations will kick off the new phase with a training programme for scientists from startups and industry, giving them hands-on skills with the equipment. Taslimarif Saiyed, C-CAMP’s chief executive, said the partnership was about making world-class science more democratic.

“Such collaborations will play a key role in enabling technology development and accelerating science-led innovation,” he said.

Nandakumar Kalathil, who heads Agilent’s India operations, said the country was central to the company’s plans. “India is a strategic priority for Agilent and partnerships like this are central to how we expand access to critical scientific capabilities,” he said.