Bangalore June 08, 2009

Initial contribution of Rs 1 crore to set up the Cell

Biocon Limited, India's pioneering biotechnology company and the Indian School of Business (ISB) have launched the Biocon Cell for Innovation Management (BCIM) to promote innovation in business. The Cell will be established under the aegis of the Centre for Leadership, Innovation, and Change (CLIC) at the ISB. BCIM at the ISB will help organizations find answers to questions such as the gaps in a company's ability to innovate, assessing the required understanding to manage and mitigate risks associated with innovation and how to produce high value, high quality, strategic innovation at low cost. Biocon is contributing an initial investment of Rs.1 crore to set up BCIM

Commenting on the new initiative, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & MD of Biocon Ltd., and Executive Board Member, ISB, said, "We have to find new solutions for the unique challenges we face in India and Innovation is the key to forge this. At Biocon, innovation has been our driving force right from inception. I would like the Biocon Cell for Innovation to understand the process of innovation and create and develop champions who will make innovation a part of company culture."

The partnership between Biocon and ISB further strengthens the trend started by ISB when its founding fathers attracted the support of industry to establish an international quality business school in India. "The ISB ushered in several innovative practices in Indian management education. I am proud to partner with Biocon for setting up a Cell for studying innovation and spreading the knowledge of the process that underlies innovation. It is a befitting partnership for I know that innovation is in Biocon's DNA. With the support of Biocon, the Centre for Leadership Innovation and Change at ISB will initiate research and invest in business innovation," said Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB

The primary objective of the BCIM is to foster innovation and link it to operational excellence. "India and other emerging markets have developed breakthrough ideas in the process of facing challenges unique to their countries. BCIM will focus on understanding and streamlining these knowledge processes through research. We will discover best practices, success stories and processes that have worked for various organisations and prepare a framework that can be implemented by any company across the world," said Professor Prasad Kaipa, the Executive Director of CLIC at the ISB, who will drive BCIM.

A representative of Biocon, the Executive Director of CLIC, other prominent industry leaders and academics in the area of innovation and strategy will comprise the Board of BCIM. The board will play an advisory and enabling role by providing research ideas that will assist the activities of BCIM to create maximum impact.

Biocon will provide funding over a minimum 10 year period as and when required.

About the ISB
The Indian School of Business is a premier management institution established in 2001. In a short span of seven years, the ISB has successfully pioneered several new trends in management education in India and has established itself as a leading B-school across the world. The ISB has a strong pool of research oriented resident faculty and invites high calibre international faculty from reputed B-schools to teach in its Post Graduate Programme in Management/Executive Education Programmes as well as to participate in collaborative research with the resident faculty. The ISB has academic associations with the Kellogg School of Management, The Wharton School, and the London Business School

About Biocon Limited
Established in 1978, Biocon Limited is one of India's premier biotechnology companies. Together with its group companies. Biocon forms a fully integrated biotechnology enterprise, specializing in biopharmaceuticals, custom research and clinical research which deliver products and solutions to partners and customers across the globe. Biocon launched the world's first recombinant human insulin, INSUGEN^® in November 2004 using Pichia expression and India's first indigenously produced monoclonal antibody BIOMAb-EGFR^™. Focusing on unmet medical needs in cancer, diabetes and inflammatory diseases, Biocon offers novel therapies on a platform of affordable innovation. Biocon's strategic licensing partnerships provide market penetration and global access to deliver breakthrough therapeutics to millions of patients the world over.