Lupin has, as part of its effort to strengthen its research team, roped in Dr Sudershan K Arora as president, Novel Chemical Entity (NCE) research. Arora, who was with Ranbaxy Labs for three years, headed NCE research at the New Delhi-based company.

Arora also played a pivotal role in zeroing in on Ranbaxy's two leading Investigational New Drug (IND) filings for BPH and bronchial asthma.

Arora is the second top Ranbaxy research and development official who has moved over to Lupin Labs. Earlier in the year, Himadri Sen had joined Lupin to head Novel Drug Delivery System (NDDS) research.

Sen was formerly associate vice-president of Ranbaxy Labs and one of the senior-most of the six member Ranbaxy team of scientists that went on to zero in on the ciprofloxacin NDDS.

Arora, who has 25 years of experience in new molecule discovery (with five molecules already to his credit), will help reinforce Lupin's R&D focus in the area of NCE research in the therapeutic segments of anti-infectives, cardiovasculars and rheumatoid arthritis. "At Lupin, I plan to start off with research in the area of phytochemistry and synthetic molecules," he told The Financial Express.

His expertise covers a wide array of multidisciplinary complex chemical sciences. Arora has worked in the US with Biogen (for product development of small molecules) and Greenwich Pharmaceuticals heading NCE research, a press release said.

Arora will catapult Lupin into discovery of new drugs and pharmaceuticals by initiating research, initially at the existing research facility at Mandideep in Madhya Pradesh and subsequently at the upcoming hitech integrated R&D complex at Pune. The Pune unit will house research groups in the NDDS and NCE, among others.

Lupin Labs chairman and managing director Desh Bandhu Gupta, while welcoming Arora, said: "Innovation has always been a way of life at Lupin which is evident from its success in the third generation Cephalosporins, including sterile preparations, for entering the advanced markets of western Europe and the US.