Novartis may expand ops at Hyd centre

Pharma major Novartis is likely to expand the operations at its R &D Centre here, the Telangana government said today.
State IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao met Petra Laux, Global Head Public Affairs Policy, Novartis, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos, an official release stated.
"Dr. Petra Laux expressed that Novartis is very happy about the city. She mentioned that their current footprint is about 90,000 Sft of laboratory space employing about 350 scientific researchers; and will be expanding to 1,62,000 sft to establish its High Potent Formulation Development labs along with Analytical Development Facility which will facilitate 150 more scientific researchers," it said.

The expansion of the Novartis R&D Centre will significantly boost the development of Genome Valley, it said.
In another meeting, the minister discussed the prospects of setting up AirAsia's Tech Center in Telangana and conducting innovation programmes to support startups in aerospace sector, the release added.