AgroPages-BRF: Committed to Being the Cornerstone for Customers to Achieve Efficient Registration-Agricultural news

Erwin Xue

Vice General Manager

Dr. C. Tamilselvan
Founder & Chairman of Bioscience Research Foundation

Bioscience Research Foundation (BRF) was founded by Dr. C. Tamilselvan, who is humble, multitalented and has massive knowledge in the field of science. Under his leadership, BRF is now the CRO pioneer in India for the largest GLP regulatory research in all fields under one umbrella. In the course of interviewing Tamilselvan, we gained a deeper insight into why BRF can become India's leading CRO company and is recognized and trusted by many clients at home and abroad.

Could you please briefly summarize the global performance development of BRF? Is it possible to share a story about yourself and your company's background to readers, especially your rich experience in the agrochemical industry?

BRF is an integrated discovery and Contract Research Organization (CRO) established more than a decade ago with the prime aim of serving the agrochemical industry and core allied industries. BRF has undertaken research on agrochemical products with astonishing quality and integrity compliance reports along with sponsor gratification under a single roof, which makes us one of the best CROs among the scientific communities.

BRF is an eco friendly accredited/approved research facility with OECD-GLP (NGCMA), CPCSEA, DSIR, SENAVE & IBSC. The research facility covers 55,000 sq.ft of built-up areas along with 45 animal rooms with an uninterrupted power supply and a controlled environment.

BRF globally supports development, and the data generation strictly adheres to international standards such as OECD, BIS, OPPTS (OCSPP), EPA, ASTM, EEC, FDA, IP/BP, USP, ICH, SANCO, JMAFF, CIBRC, ISO, FAO, WHO and the registration of crop protection products. In addition to that, BRF liaisons with National and International Research Institutes/Foundations in India, Agricultural Universities and Research Centers in different Indian states and collaborates for the technology transfer and product development, under both laboratory and field conditions.

I am the Founder and Chairman of BRF, I started my own venture in 1999 after serving in various CROs with vast knowledge on regulatory research. Eventually, in 2009, BRF was established with a state-of-the-art laboratory going full throttle with GLP in 2015. Currently, we are a 180-plus strong organization to compete with any terms of research worldwide.

Could you please explain your major projects and special advantage over your industry rivals? Also, could you talk about your project efficiency, team force, confidentiality and so on?

Currently, BRF is globally renowned among the agrochemical manufacturers with a robust tracking record in regulatory research. BRF solves issues and offers a complete package of services in accordance with the registration of agrochemical products in the industry.

Our projects focus on industrial chemical, microbial pesticides, method development and validation, 5-batch analysis, physiochemical analysis, toxicology safety studies (acute, subacute, sub-chronic, and chronic), carcinogenicity, developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity and livestock studies, pharmacology (efficacy & pharmaco-kinetics), pathology (histopathology & clinical pathology), genetic-toxicology (in-vivo & in-vitro), eco-toxicology (aquatic, terrestrial & environmental fate studies), entomology and QSAR. BRF offers quality, integrity, reliability and time management of services. BRF fulfills the complete package under a single roof. Our trend is to update protocol intellectually (method validation and standardization) and offer new services to sponsors; this is BRF's strategy to compete with others in the industry.

Additionally, BRF has a client-centric friendly approach to meet their needs without saying "NO". This is along with a focus and policy to maintain readability, reliability and reproducibility to generate quality reports to the clients.

BRF does not end up or break its support/relationship with clients after delivering quality reports. We challenge and continue our support until the product reports have been accepted by the regulatory authorities. This is the biggest strength of BRF in the industry to compete with other CROs.

BRF has a well-experienced team of over 150 scientists from diversified backgrounds to deal with tough projects and timelines and resolve any technical issues. BRF generates quality data and maintains projects with the utmost confidentially. BRF has 24/7 physical security and 24/7 video monitoring of all areas with 100 CCTV cameras and restricted access archive with fireproof cabinets. There is also a firewall protected server with a separate controlled document management system to handle data movement. The information technology security team secures all systems and comprises an external security team and internal security team that work together and conduct regular full system checks and audit unauthorized access of systems and data. All teams working on a project are insulated from each other to preserve client confidentiality at all levels within the organization. Policies and practices exist to ensure data flows only on a need to know basis.

Are there any differences between the Chinese and other international markets? What successful experiences and service concepts can be shared with our readers? We understand that besides traditional toxicity studies, physical and chemical properties, you also support clients with dose verification that helps build strong relationships with your clients.

The noticeable trend in the Chinese market has been the move by manufacturers to develop, register their own products, backed by increased investment in R&D, breaking away from offering just manufacturing support to other companies. With this, there has been an increase in the focus toward higher quality and speed in bringing products to consumers. This trend forms the differentiation between the Chinese market and other markets; to summarize, it can be said that there is more time sensitivity which makes CROs like us work on expedited schedules compared to other markets which are more price sensitive.

We focus on traditional studies with dose verification because China is one of the leading manufacturers in agrochemicals. Every day, as newer products reach the market, our team of experts works toward updating the SOPs to meet the standards and requirements of these developments.

I have been working for over two decades with Chinese manufacturers and sensed their needs and executed those in BRF at the time of delivery.

Could you please describe your lab success rate, and how many markets your clients submit your report to and then get registration approval? How do your clients evaluate your report quality?

BRF has a proven track record across markets worldwide for more than 136 agrochemical manufactures through data generation and product submission to the regulatory authorities. BRF successfully completed more than 4,000 reports for 410 products, 340 have been approved and others are in the pipeline for registration. Our clients evaluate their report quality based on technical aspects, strictly with respective guidelines, way of sequential expression of the study and stringency on the delivery of results. We also have regular follow-up meetings with our clients to gauge their satisfaction and receive feedback on how to better deliver our services.

What is the development plan of BRF around the world, and specifically in China, for the coming years? Could you introduce your mission and vision?

BRF has a global commitment toward scientific excellence and regulatory ethics in R&D to achieve the highest level of efficiency, continually striving to keep up with advances in science. BRF has moved past several milestones in its quest to support the evergrowing needs of the industry. Our vision is “to be building blocks for manufacturers”. BRF plans to explore scope in all the regions of China to help manufactures with their regulatory needs.

This story was initially published in AgroPages 'Annual Review 2018' magazine. Download the PDF version of the magazine to read more stories.