Indian CRO GVK BIO raises $25 million

PRLog (Press Release) – Nov 27, 2007 – Private equity firm Sequoia Capital has invested Rs 1 billion ($25 million) in Indian CRO GVK Biosciences (Hyderabad). GVK BIO plans to use the funds to build a state-of-the-art campus on a 25-acre site at Hyderabad, offer new pre-clinical and clinical services, expand its drug discovery services, and fund mergers and acquisitions.

Following the investment, Sequoia Capital India managing director Sandeep Singhal has joined GVK BIO’s board.

Founded in 2001, GVK BIO has around 1,300 employees located at facilities in Hyderabad, Chennai and Gurgaon. It claims to be the only Indian CRO providing an integrated service ranging from informatics, medicinal chemistry and biology in discovery research, to clinical research and data management for drug development, and process research and custom synthesis. In March this year, the company formed a 50:50 joint venture, INC GVK BIO Pvt Ltd, with US CRO INC Research (Raleigh, North Carolina) to run full service, Phase I-IV clinical trials in India.

Sequoia Capital India manages four funds totalling $1.1 billion focused on the service and software sectors from its offices in Bangalore and Mumbai. Other investments in healthcare include: Dr Lal PathLabs (New Delhi), which offers diagnostic and pathology services; and ReaMetrix, which provides high-value reagent solutions for life science research and diagnostic development from bases in San Carlos, California and Bangalore, India.