Mumbai workshop on drug delivery technologies: ‘Researchers, industry must work together to bridge gap between discovery, delivery’

Mitragotri said institutes and researchers worked towards innovations in drug discovery without giving much importance to how the drug is administered. “To bridge this gap, researchers and the industry must work in partnership. Start-ups have emerged as an efficient link between the two,” he said.

“Start-ups have a full realisation of the risks involved in a new drug developed by them but they also understand the business,” said Mitragotri, who is also an N R Kamath Chair professor of IIT-B.

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The one-day workshop was held to identify the challenges in drug delivery technologies and to share the recent innovations in the field. “One of the biggest challenges in the pharmaceutical industry is to deliver the right amount of drugs at the right time,” said Mitragotri, adding that the existing methods of administering drugs need to be upgraded.

The workshop was the first such event held by IIT-B in association with the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) and the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI).

With participation from more than 100 industry representatives and around 30 students, the workshop also facilitated an industry-academia interaction.

While IIT-B was able to showcase its achievements in the field of drug development, industry giants, which included Sun Pharma and Lupin Limited, got a glimpse of the latest innovations in the field, said Daara Patel, secretary general of IDMA.

The workshop included lectures, paper presentations and panel discussions on the gaps in drug delivery technologies and the requirement of cancer-treating drugs that do not affect the healthy cells but work effectively on the tumour. Academicians and pharmaceutical companies agreed that a partnership between the two could help in identifying the need areas in drug development sector and to raise funds for research.