India's Piramal will divert resources from early-stage research to advanced-stage molecules

Indian pharma company Piramal Enterprises has announced its intention to stop early-stage research in order to focus on molecules at an advanced stage, according to Indian newspaper Business Standard.

It cites Swati Piramal, vice chair of the company, as saying that it will invest in drugs with a higher chance of moving through the clinical stages, and will allocate more resources to the clinical teams than drug discovery.

Piramal has denied intentions to lay off the 200 R&D staff at the Mumbai facility. Of the 4,200 staff working in healthcare at the company, 900 are in research and development.