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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Indian researchers develops nano version of a cancer drug

For the first time, a nano version of carboplatin, used in chemotherapy treatment has been developed, wherein unlike the existing molecule, a higher concentration of the drug will attack the cancerous cells and increase the chances of survival of a patient.

A group of five Indian researchers and doctors from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai; LV Prasad Eye Institute, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad; and Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai; has researched and developed a nano version of an existing cancer drug, carboplatin. This will reach the cancerous cells at a faster pace, reduce toxicity levels of the chemotherapy drug and further increase chances of survival of the patient. Carboplatin is a chemotherapy drug used against some forms of cancer, especially against cancers affecting brain and central nervous system. If this nano drug is proved successful in human trials, this would be the first nano version of a carboplatin drug in the world.

Dr Debraj Shome, Facial Cancer Expert from Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, India, and who heads the five-member research team, said, “We realized that in many cases, large molecule carboplatin drugs could not penetrate and reach the cells in the eyes and the brain. We then thought why not come out with a nano version of this same drug which would be an answer to many shortcomings. Due to the reduced size of the drug it would not be difficult for the molecules to penetrate through the pores of the outer portion of the eye and directly target the cancerous cells.” This was proven through an experiment conducted on rats, one eye of the rat was injected with normal size of carboplatin while the other eye was treated with the nano size of the drug. Chances of toxicity were also shown to be very minimal. “Toxicity levels in the normal carboplatin drug are not an issue as the drug is traditionally been reasonably safe to neural tissue,” added Dr Shome.

The nano version of the drug enters cells upto as much as 75 percent more than the normal generic version of the drug. Moreover, the common problem faced by cancer patients undergoing a chemotherapy treatment was that, an overdose of the existing drug had high chances of killing the healthy cells along with the cancerous ones. As this nano drug will enter more efficiently, lesser amounts of the drug can be used and collateral damage of normal human tissue could be avoided.

This nano drug will mainly target children below the age of two years who are suffering from retinoblastoma (eye cancer) and children and young adults suffering from other round cell tumors. This could be a blessing in disguise for this target group, around 50 percent of whom die not just because of the disease but because of chemotherapy overdose itself. For human trials, the first step was to test 150-200 patients with peri-ocular injections of the normal drug, after which the next step was the animal experiment to develop the nano drug. Subsequently, the step was to test the nano drug on humans. Till date around 5-7 patients with retinoblastoma have already been treated with this nano drug.

While experiments in rats were completed last year, human trials of the nano drug has commenced a few months earlier. This trial has being accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed US-based ophthalmology research journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
 
Nanobiotechnology, has been creating waves in the industry. At present a number of Indian pharma and biotech players are working on applications of nanomedicine in the treatment of a number diseases, cancer being the top most in their list. Biocon and Abraxis BioScience recently launched Abraxane the nanotechnology-based anticancer drug in India for the treatment of breast cancer. Dabur Pharma, a leading manufacturer of anti-cancer drugs, had also launched nanoxel the novel drug delivery system for the widely used anti-cancer drug Paclitaxel. The nanoscale drug delivery system is claimed to be India's first indigenously developed nanotechnology-based chemotherapy agent. Pune-based Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) is also working on nanotech-based products though they were reluctant to reveal details.

The research team has decided not to hand over the patent to any pharmaceutical company as of now and prefers to work on an independent basis especially in the basic research and development phase. They have filed a patent and typically they would spin off into a different company.


India among top 5 government funders of neglected diseases

India along with Brazil are now in the top 5 government funders of neglected disease R&D and are taking the lead on diseases like leprosy and dengue fever. An annual survey of investment into neglected disease R&D released, shows that nearly $2.96 billion was spent on making new products for neglected diseases in 2008. A key finding of the G-FINDER survey was that, for some diseases, traditional donor funding is being replaced by investment from pharmaceutical companies and Innovative Developing Countries (IDCs) such as Brazil, India and South Africa. Where there is no profitable market, as with many of the diseases that affect sub Saharan Africa, R&D remains heavily reliant on traditional donor and philanthropic funding.
 
“These are tough economic times but, for the first time, we are seeing that for some neglected diseases the traditional reliance on charitable funding and donor aid is being replaced by a market and domestically driven R&D,” said report author, Dr Mary Moran of The George Institute for International Health. “This is good news for new medicines and diagnostics in India, Brazil and South Africa, but not for most of sub Saharan Africa where there is still no market and they will have to rely on donors and philanthropists for some time yet,” she added.
 
This trend reflects the growing research strength and pharmaceutical markets of India and Brazil, in particular, as well as high local incidence of diseases such as leprosy and dengue. The downside of this trend is that diseases of Africa continue to rely on donors, who still provide more than 85 percent of funds for Buruli ulcer, trachoma, kinetoplastid diseases like sleeping sickness and many helminth infections.
 
Report Findings
 
The G-FINDER report shows that in 2008 Innovative Developing Countries (IDC`s) like India, Brazil and South Africa and pharmaceutical companies funded:
  1. Nearly 60 percent of R&D for pneumonia and meningitis
     
  2. More than half (51 percent) of leprosy R&D (Brazil and India have the largest number of new leprosy cases per year in the world)
     
  3. Nearly half (46 percent) of R&D for new dengue products (the Americas, particularly Brazil, along with Asia, have the highest global prevalence of dengue)
     
  4. Around 20 percent of funding for new treatments and vaccines for diarrhoeal illnesses, TB and malaria (which occur worldwide)
“The G-Finder survey report has put India as the 5th largest public funder of neglected diseases, and ICMR provides 60 percent of the funds. Visceral leishmaniasis and leprosy are amongst most neglected diseases, and we must further improve our funding for research to find new tools to combat them,” said Dr V M Katoch, Secretary, Department of Health Research, and Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi.

Other Key Findings
 
  • Global funding for neglected disease R&D ground to a standstill in 2008, with funding cuts or freezes across the board including a $26.3 million decrease in funding from High-Income Countries (HICs)
  • This injection of additional funds led to a net increase of $100.1m (3.9 percent) in global neglected disease R&D investment in 2008.
  • Two organizations provided nearly 60 percent of global funding in this area in 2008: the US National Institutes of Health ($1.1 billion, 36.5 percent) and the Gates Foundation ($617 million, 20.9 percent).
  • The pharmaceutical industry was collectively the third largest global investor, with companies providing one-eighth ($365 million, 12.4 percent) of global funding for neglected disease R&D.
"This G-Finder report confirms the welcome news that an increasing number of Pharma companies are allocating R+D resources to the neglected diseases surveyed. Although no major financial returns can be expected with medicines for many of these diseases in the foreseeable future, there is a growing sense of responsibility for underprivileged patients and reputational aspects,which are helping to improve the lives of patients”, said Prof Paul L Herrling, Head of Corporate Research for Novartis International.

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Friday, January 29, 2010

Indian bio-pharma industry accounts for 65% of the biotech sector


Indian bio-pharma industry is valued at Rs 7,883 crore and is registering 14.25 per cent annual growth. The sector accounts for 65 per cent of the total biotech sector which is valued at Rs 12, 137 crore, according to the Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs and Biospectrum survey.

The bio pharmaceuticals sector continues to grow, stated Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon Limited and chairperson Vision Group on Karnataka.

Emerging markets is certainly a strong focus now with many global biopharma companies. Emerging markets are seen to be the highest growth opportunities and this is really about addressing stagnating topline growth amongst companies. Late stage asset acquisition is another very interesting trend. This is, again, to address the declining pipelines and filling them up with late stage assets that can accelerate time to market, stated Shaw at the J P Morgan Healthcare Conference held at San Francisco early this month.

One of the biggest risk that the industry is addressing is about the increasing risks and costs associated with drug development. And here, industry is beginning to experiment with new risk sharing models. Co-development is an interesting strategy. Outsourcing R&D services to reduce cost is another way of looking at cost mitigation in drug innovation, she added.

India has a handful of dedicated bio-pharma companies which manufacture using fermentation process known as monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) which primarily include cancer drugs, insulin, growth hormones, and cell culture to produce vaccines. While Biocon is the largest in the space with range of bio-pharma products gearing a revenue of Rs 100 crore to its total turnover of Rs 1,739 crore. The other companies are Panacea Biotech, Novo Nordisk, Shanta Biotech, Jubilant, Bharat Biotech, Indian Immunologicals, Bharat Serums, Themis Medicare, Concord Biotech, Intas Biopharma, GSK, Wockhardt, Serum International, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Aventis.

The bio-pharma sector has been largely start-up ventures. Until five years ago venture capital funding was the only source of funding to boost growth plans. But now the Union government has come out with several schemes to give a fillip to the bio-pharma sector. It has allocated funds to promote growth through its initiatives like Biotech Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP), Biotech Industry Research Assistance Programme (BIRAP) along with the Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI) scheme to boost public-private-partnership effort and New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) financial assistance schemes. These funding initiatives would provide platform to boost the growth of the sector.

Indian biotech sector has reached an inflection point as it is close to achieving the US$ 5 billion mark and targets US$ 10 billion in 2015.Going by the scientific expertise here in the country, there is room for intellectual capital and a requirement for smart and low cost innovations. In order to have an edge in the competitive international arena, there is need for affordable targeted therapies and faster diagnostic devices. Therefore Indian biotech companies need to work to exhibit their capabilities to develop drugs and devices of sustainable commercial value that could attract investors, said Shaw.

APEX’10 PE/VC summit on Feb 4 in Mumbai to focus on healthcare, life sciences


The APEX ’10 Private Equity & Venture Capital Summit organised by Venture Intelligence, a division of the Chennai-based TSJ Media Pvt. Ltd. on February 4 in Mumbai will be featuring a high power panel discussion on the role of private equity and venture capital in healthcare & life sciences. Venture Intelligence is a leading provider of data and analysis on private equity/venture capital and M&A deals in India.

Speakers on the panel include Hari Buggana, MD, Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund,Dr. Bala Manian, CEO, ReaMetrix,Swapan Bhattacharya, MD, TCG Lifesciences,Chetan Tamhankar, CEO, SIRO Clinpharm,S. Nandakumar, CEO, Perfint Healthcare and Amit Mookim, Director, KPMG India

“The mega Ranbaxy-Daiichi deal, which has been followed by other large M&A deals in the pharma sector including the Orchid-Hospira and Shantha-Sanofi deals, has created much excitement among investor community. Consolidation in the hospitals sector is also presenting investors with several interesting investment opportunities,” said Arun Natarajan, managing director & CEO of Venture Intelligence.

However, PE/VC firms also have some specific concerns relating to investments in the HLS industry. A recent poll by Venture Intelligence lists long gestation periods, scalability and talent shortage as among the top concerns for investors when it comes to the healthcare sector. In the life sciences segment, investors’ concerns are focused on the high risk of failure , stiff competition from inside and outside India, as well as patent-related issues. Lack of clarity in regulations and corporate governance standards were listed as common concerns across the industry. The HLS panel at APEX’10 will focus on both the opportunities and challenges for investing in this industry.

Benefits of participating at APEX summit include face-to-face interaction with leading private equity / venture capital investors, learning from leading PE/VC backed entrepreneurs on their experience with raising funding,networking with other entrepreneurs and leading intermediaries who assist in fund raising,opportunity to be part of the 'Company Showcase' manual which will be mailed to leading PE/VC firms, consultants & investment banks.

For participation details, email info@ventureintelligence.in or +91-44-45534303.More information about APEX ’10 is available at http://ventureintelligence.in/ev040210.htm

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

DPSARU to organize symposium on 'Advances in Cardiovascular Sciences'

Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University (DPSARU) New Delhi, will organize 4th International Symposium on 'Recent Advances in Cardiovascular Sciences' on February 3 & 4 at the G. K N Auditorium in DPSARU.

The emphasis of the symposium will be on topics related to the Cardiovascular Disorders and their management. More than 300 scientists and professionals from the academia, industry and regulatory bodies from all over the country as well as from abroad are expected to take part in the symposium. During the symposium the scholars will focus on the recent advancements and developments in the area of cardiovascular research with particular reference to Drug Discovery and Drug Development.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Dept of Pharma to organise international meet on pharma industry in Mumbai in Nov

The Department of Pharmaceuticals, in association with FICCI and other pharma organisations, is organising an international conference on pharmaceuticals in Mumbai on November 30, ahead of the proposed CHI happening from next day, to showcase strength of Indian companies.

A meeting, called by Pharma secretary Ashok Kumar recently, decided to organise the event in a bid to lure the big traders from the developed countries and thereby giving a fillip to the exports from the country by showcasing the strengths of the domestic industry. The meeting was attended by joint secretary Arun Jha, deputy secretary Paresh Johri, representatives from organisations like SPIC, IDMA, BDMA and OPPI, experts from UNIDO, Pharmexcil and CPhI organisers to chalk out the detailed plan for the event.


The event will showcase the strength of Indian companies for meeting global requirement of quality medicines as a vision of 2020. This year event will be novel drugs and drug discovery. The government could consider luring visitors from Vietnam, Korea, CIS countries, South Africa etc. Members who want to suggest the name of prominent members can forward the same to us and all efforts will be made to call those prominent persons at the cost of government, it was decided.

Pharma associations suggested that conference should also involve segments like medical devices, pharma machinery and excipients industry. Besides, there was also suggestion to extend 50 per cent concession to the small and medium pharma units to take part in the exhibition.

"Focus will be on inviting big traders mostly from Europe who get the major share of WHO tenders to come to India as guests along with the consumer organizations of developing countries and the regulatory authorities of focus countries to come to India to see our commitment to quality drugs at affordable prices by arranging visits to SME sector units all over the country. This is essential to remove the stigma of spurious drugs being originated from India," an official said.

The conference, in general, will emphasise India as a destination of quality generic medicines at affordable prices for all range of customers besides demonstrating the capabilities of the country in the field.