a lease of life to nearly extinct Kodagu orange

Bangalore, Jun 9 (UNI) The famous oranges of Kodagu, nearly extinct now, has received a new lease of life with biopharma major Avesthagen providing an helping hand to improve the stock.

The Company had recently bought an 87 acre plantation on Hassan-Kodagu border in karnataka to raise kodagu oranges and help people who live on it. Avesthagen Founder and Managing Director Dr Villoo Moravala Patell told newsmen here today that the Company had thus started backward integration as peels of Kodagu orange provided an imporant input for growth of bones. Avesthagen had found in tests using the peel some growth in bones and decided to take it up as a project.

She said that the company had also acquired 10,000 saplings of kodagu orange from the Orange Research Institute. They were being planned in fallow land adjoing in the coffee plantation.

Avesthagen was in the process of developing eleven molecules for biosimilar products and had already received clearance for the second phase of trials of a molecule, anti-TNF Alpha, an anti inflammatory drug.

Dr Patell said that the Company also planned to take up integrated development of a few villages in Bidar District of Karnataka, where large number of farmers suicides have been reported, using technology. She said that the framework for development had not been planned yet. However the company would provide all necessary technical input to improve the lot of farmers in these villages.

UNI