Syngene International Limited is an internationally reputed custom research and manufacturing organisation, which supports R&D programs from lead generation to clinical supplies. The company was promoted by Biocon and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, a promoter of Biocon Limited. The company was formed with objectives of providing contract research service to overseas customer in the field of synthetic chemistry, molecular biology and custom synthesis. The company provides integrated services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nutrition, animal health, consumer goods and specialty chemicals industries across the world. Syngene's clientele include market leaders such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Baxter, Amgen, GSK, Zoetis, Merck KGaA and Herbalife. The company was incorporated at Bangalore in the year 1993. During the year 1994-1995, the company pioneered in CRO services for both Chemistry and Biology. During the year 2001-2002, the company acquired a new facility inclusive of a cGMP pilot plant. In March 30, 2002, the company's 99.9% equity share was transferred to Biocon and the company became a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd. During the year 2003-2004, the company introduced Process Research and Optimization Services. In October 21, 2004, the company commissioned a new research facility at Boammasandra, Bangalore. In February 15, 2006, the company commissioned new facility at Biocon Park. In August 30, 2006, the company received approval of additional facility to set up as SEZ unit from Cochin Special Economic Zone. During the year 2006-2007, Bristol- Myers Squibb had entered into a long term agreement with the company to set up an exclusive research facility to house more than 400 scientists. During the year, the company had ventured into other area of Biology viz Genetic Engineering, Protein Chemistry, and assay development. The company had developed extensive expertise in the creation of customized stable cell lines expressing proteins / receptors of intersest. During the year 2007-2008, the company entered a long term service agreement with BMS. During the year 2008-2009, the company created an alliance partnership with DuPont Crop Protection. On 21 July 2011, Syngene International and Endo Pharmaceuticals USA announced that they have signed an agreement to expand their collaboration to develop novel biological therapeutic molecules against cancer. Syngene and Endo will partner on two new discovery programmes, strengthening their ongoing alliance in cancer research. Under the agreement, Endo will retain all rights to the molecules developed, while Syngene International will receive research fees, milestone payments and success fees from Endo. On 4 June 2012, Abbott, one of India's largest healthcare companies, inaugurated its first nutrition research and development center in the country, in collaboration with Syngene International. The state-of-the-art Research and Development center will focus on the development of science-based, affordable nutrition products for the country and enable the expansion of Abbott's nutrition product portfolio. In 2012, Syngene International received ANVISA Certification of clinical facilities. During the year under review, Syngene International acquired 100% stake in Clinigene International Limited from Biocon. Syngene International crossed an annual turnover of Rs 500 crore crore in the year ended 31 March 2013. In 2013, Baxter International Inc. collaborated with Syngene International to establish the Baxter Global Research Center'. During the year under review, Syngene International's Control Testing Laboratory received acceptance from the Department of Health & Human Services, US Food and Drug Administration. On 3 June 2014, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Syngene International announced a five-year extension of their drug discovery and development collaboration in India. Financial terms were not disclosed. In 2014, Syngene International's API manufacturing facility received acceptance from Department of Health & Human Services, US Food and Drug Administration. During the year under review, Syngene International established a 75,000 sq. ft. centre to provide stability and analytical services. Syngene International made its debut on the secondary equity market on 11 August 2015. The stock debuted at Rs 295 on BSE, a premium of 18% compared to the initial public offer (IPO) price of Rs 250 per share. The Rs 550-crore Initial Public Offering (IPO) through offer for sale from its parent Biocon Ltd. received an excellent response from investors and was subscribed 32.05 times. The issue opened for subscription on 27 July 2015 and closed on 29 July 2015. In 2015, Syngene International's subsidiary Clinigene International Limited, which provides clinical research and clinical trial services, was amalgamated with Syngene International. Syngene International crossed annual turnover of Rs 1000 crore in the year ended 31 March 2016. On 6 September 2016, Syngene International announced the establishment in Bangalore, India, of an integrated, multi-disciplinary drug discovery and development center for Amgen, Inc. The state-of-the-art dedicated center will be staffed by a team of more than 100 highly qualified Syngene scientists, working in close association with Amgen researchers around the world on the discovery and development of innovative medicines. In addition to being customized to meet Amgen's functional requirements, the facility complies with the highest regulatory standards. Its design includes a range of environmentally-friendly features and flexible layouts, and is configured to minimize solvent and effluent waste with a strong emphasis on laboratory safety and 'green' chemistry. On 21 September 2016, Syngene International Ltd.and Strand Life Sciences announced that they have completed a deal through which Syngene has purchased assets of Strand Life Sciences related to systems biology, Heptox and pharma bioinformatics services. This includes target dossier business and rights to NGS data analytics and Sarchitect platforms, supported by a strong scientific team. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. This deal gives Syngene access to Strand's patented Virtual Liver model and the NGS analytics platform. The Virtual Liver model is able to predict the toxic effect of different drugs or chemicals on the liver (both rat and human) using information from laboratory-based experiments prior to actual testing on live animals or humans. Strand NGS is an integrated platform that provides analysis, management and visualization tools for next-generation sequencing data. On 2 March 2017, Herbalife, a global nutrition company, announced the launch of its first Nutrition Research and Development Lab in India, in partnership with Syngene International. The strategic partnership will help Herbalife Nutrition develop and formulate world-class nutrition products for Indian consumers. On 27 July 2017, Syngene International announced the expansion of its research collaboration with Amgen Inc. As a result, Syngene will expand the Syngene Amgen Research & Development Center (SARC) in terms of size and scope of its operations. The expansion of SARC will be customized to meet Amgen's functional requirements and will include a range of environment-friendly features that will enable optimal utilization of the laboratory space. On 14 November 2017, Syngene International announced that it has expanded its ongoing collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The next phase of the partnership will see the addition of a new facility to support future Bristol-Myers Squibb research and development operations, an expansion of the team and the extension of the existing agreement through 2026. As part of the expansion, Syngene will set up a new dedicated facility spread across 25,000 sq. ft. of laboratory and office space for Bristol-Myers Squibb. This facility will house an additional team of 75 Syngene scientists who will work exclusively in support of Bristol-Myers Squibb. On 26 March 2018, Syngene International announced an R&D agreement with GSK, a science-led global healthcare company. The multiyear agreement will focus on accelerating the discovery of new drug candidates using Syngene's discovery services platforms. As part of the agreement, Syngene will set-up a customized discovery research laboratory to support projects across several therapeutic areas. A team of Syngene scientists will work closely with GSK's global R&D teams on discovery research projects to identify new drug candidates with the potential to address some of the world's most pressing healthcare needs. On 30 May 2018, Syngene International announced that the company has entered into a non-exclusive partnering agreement with Zumutor Biologics, an emerging immuno-oncology company, to access Zumutor's proprietary nave human phage/yeast display library. This collaboration further enhances Syngene's market-leading capabilities in Discovery Biology, providing its scientists with additional tools to help solve complex biology problems in biotherapeutic drug discovery. Under the terms of the agreement, Syngene will screen target antigens against Zumutor's proprietary human antibody libraries to identify and characterize novel antibody clones, which will be further developed by Syngene towards novel biotherapeutics programs for its partners On 23 July 2018, Syngene International Ltd. announced the expansion of the scope of its R&D collaboration with Baxter Healthcare Corporation, a global healthcare company. As part of the expansion, Syngene will set up additional infrastructure at the dedicated Baxter Global Research Center (BGRC) as well as increase the size of its scientific team working on Baxter projects. The duration of the agreement has also been extended until 2024. Syngene and Baxter originally established the Baxter Global Research Center, a dedicated R&D center, in 2013.