Ranbaxy Laboratories has transferred its research division, New Drug Discovery Research (NDDR) to Daiichi Sankyo to create new drugs, as a part of strengthening global research and development structure of Daiichi Sankyo.

The new organisation will be renamed as Daiichi Sankyo Life Science Research Centre in India (RCI) and will be based in Gurgaon, India.

Ranbaxy and Daiichi Sankyo said that RCI will be engaged for the development of new drugs particularly in the area of low molecular weight infectious and inflammatory disease treatments.

As part of the transfer, Ranbaxy will retain research for later commercialisation of its anti-malarial new drug which is currently in Phase-III trials, including the development programs in the GSK collaboration.

Additionally, RCI will also continue to support the programs of dengue and tuberculosis that NDDR was working on in alliance with the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Atul Sobti, CEO and managing director of Ranbaxy, said: "Within Ranbaxy, R&D of Generics will get a sharper focus, as we are increasingly working on more complex and specialist areas. Of course, this move would also provide Ranbaxy good value, on an immediate and recurring basis."