The premier research centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kabra Drugs -- a Indore-based pharmaceutical company -- to set up large commercial bio-reactors that can produce herbal compounds and other drugs in bulk quantities. Following this, the BARC has already installed two pilot scale plants (50 litres and 100 litres) for the company at Indore recently.

According to sources, the BARC has transferred its technical know-how to the company for a handsome amount for setting up these two plants and the large commercial unitthat's slated to be operational before the year is out.

Following their maiden date with a private company, BARC's bio-tech group is contemplating on more such money-spinning joint ventures with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. ``This is the first time BARC is transferring its technology to a private company for money. We foresee more collaborations with industries in future,'' said Devanand P Fulzele, the BARC scientist who designed the country's first bio-reactor.

Unlike fermenters, which breed micro-organisms used in anti-biotics, bio-reactors multiply plant cells. Traditional methods for breeding plant cells using shake flasks proved to be time-consuming and unreliable. In a bio-reactor a section of the leaf or stem or root from the plant is taken and grown inside a test tube. The tissue is grown under controlled conditions of temperature and light. This bio-mass, also called callus, is put in the bio-reactor for breeding them in large quantities.

Says Ajay Namdeo, the chief scientist withKabra Drugs: ``We have long been experimenting with Vinca rosea whose leaves contain the stuff for making anti-cancer drugs like vincristine and vinblastine.'' Namdeo's group isolated the active cell line recently from the leaves of this plant and extracted anti-cancer drugs in small quantities. ``The results have established the correctness of our methodology. Our next step is to conduct the experiment with large scale units,'' he said.

Namdeo told The Indian Express that the samples isolated by his group contain a high percentage of alkaloids used in the treatment of cancers in ovary, uterus and breast. More than reliability and other technical factors, the advantages of using bio-reactors are many.

Thousands of acres of land can be saved for growing food grains since a single active cell line from the plant is sufficient to breed drugs in large quantities. ``The bio-reactor takes around 20-21 days to breed the active plant cells,'' said Namdeo.

Asked why mainstream pharmaceutical companieskeep themselves away from such research, leaving an obscure company to take the lead in plant bio-technology, the CEO of the company, Shyam Kabra said, ``Research in plant biotechnology is time-consuming and Indian companies don't take up long-term research activities. They look for immediate results.''

``When we started the work two years ago on a modest scale, even we didn't know where the results will lead to. Today we have pioneered a method to produce anti-cancer drugs using bio-reactors,'' added Kabra.

``I am sure we will monopolise the anti-cancer drug market in a couple of years. Since the production cost is very less, we are planning to slash down the price of drugs so that it's affordable for the middle class patients,'' he said. Apart from working on anti-cancer drugs, the company is working with the BARC in setting up a 5,000 litre unit for isolating drugs like ajmalicine, vindoline, catharathine and other bio-active compounds.