“Best Agrolife Ltd. Hires Experienced R&D Experts to Boost Future-Ready Agrochemical Development”
In a significant move towards bolstering its research and development (R&D) capabilities, Best Agrolife Ltd. (BAL) (BSE: BESTAGRO 539660), a leading agrochemical company in India, has enlisted a team of seasoned R&D experts for its wholly owned subsidiary, Best Crop Science Pvt. Ltd. The team comprises Dr Rajendra Kharul, Dr Uday Gokhale, Dr Rajendra Jagdhane, and Dr Mahadev Patil, all of whom are highly experienced PhDs and post-doctorates from prestigious foreign and Indian institutes in Synthesis Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering.
Dr Rajendra Kharul, a PhD in Organic Chemistry from NCL, Pune, and a Post-doctorate from the University of Canada, brings over 20 years of experience from Zydus Cadila. He will serve as the General Manager of the R&D department of the company. Kharul’s impressive portfolio includes four patents and over 20 publications in international journals. He has a wealth of experience in patent-bursting, design, synthesis of New Chemical Entities (NCEs), building Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) relationships, and progressing these NCEs through various stages of drug discovery, particularly until pre-clinical development.
Dr Uday Gokhale, a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Alberta, Canada, and a Post Graduate from Poona University, has published 10 patents and over 20 publications in leading scientific journals. With 35 years of experience in companies like Ciba Geigy, Glaxo, Sharda Crop, and Sajjan India, Gokhale will be associated as Director-Analytical Chemistry with BAL. He brings his consultancy on Pharma API / Agrochemical Technical Grade Active Ingredients (TGAI) off-patent and patented product development in the areas of R&D, Drug Master File (DMF) / registration, manufacturing process, troubleshooting, intellectual property, and patent mining. He has in-depth regulatory knowledge of patents and strategies for avoiding patent infringement in the agrochemical industry, with particular emphasis on EU regulation.
Dr Rajendra Jagdhane and Dr Mahadev Patil, both PhDs in Organic Chemistry from NCL, Pune, and Post-doctorates from the University of Canada and the University of Finland, respectively, also join the team. Dr Jagdhane brings over 10 years of experience with Glenmark Pharma, while Dr Patil has a decade of experience with Redox Scientific. Patil, who has published 3 patents and over 16 publications in international journals, will be recruited as Assistant Manager R&D.
Pramod Narayan Karlekar, MD, Best Crop Science Pvt. Ltd., expressed his confidence in the new team, stating, “BAL is focused on building a team of highly experienced and passionate R&D experts for robust chemical synthesis R&D and large-scale manufacturing of agrochemical intermediates. The company believes that the strength of the R&D is the combined experience and passion of the team driven by the objective of creating new chemistries not done so far in India. This way, the company is committed to helping the noble objective of ‘Make In India’ in a major way. All four hired R&D experts are accomplished leaders and highly regarded researchers with an extraordinary track record of published patents. I am confident their experience and leadership will strengthen our team and accelerate our R&D efforts further.”
BAL, listed among the top 15 agrochemical companies in India, is a research-based company focused on delivering world-class and cost-effective crop solutions in the form of novel agrochemical formulations to the agricultural industry to enhance crop productivity. BAL has 7,000 MTPA and 30,000 MTPA technicals and formulation manufacturing capacity, respectively, through its three manufacturing plants in Gajraula, Greater Noida, and Jammu & Kashmir. With more than 5200 distributors in India, BAL boasts an impressive portfolio of 400+ formulations and more than 100+ technical manufacturing licences. The company recently received a patent for the term of 20 years for its in-house developed novel sugarcane herbicidal combination of Ametryn+2, 4-D+Halosulfuron methyl.