Drug city

Vaccine capital?
Serum Institute 8212; one of every two children in the world is vaccinated by Serum 8212; is launching a combination vaccine DPT and Hepatitis-B.

Fast-growing pharma company Emcure, active in marketing formulations of anti-retroviral drugs, has just launched paediatric formulae of Stavudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine. Poultry major Venkateshwara Hatcheries is foraying into human biotechnology with new cancer and arthritis drugs.

India8217;s first-ever clinical trials for an AIDS vaccine are underway at the National AIDS Research Institute. Thirty-four people, aged between 18 and 50 have volunteered for the trials, which began in February. Over the next two years, they will be administered the tgAAC09 preventive AIDS vaccine. If successful, the world could have an AIDS vaccine in eight-10 years.

Ranbaxy Laboratories has tied up with the National Chemical Laboratory to work on drugs to combat infectious diseases caused by bacteria. Lupin has filed investigational new drug applications for anti-TB and anti-Psoriasis molecules. You get the drift.

Ready crucible
THE National Chemical Laboratory, National Institute of Virology and BAIF Laboratories have played a major role in the city8217;s research-oriented pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. If the BT Park is targeting MNCs diversifying into R038;D, this is one of the reasons.

Research parks are generally successful in places where there are universities and laboratories 8212; and Pune can boast of several world-class facilities.

NCL has been at the forefront of devising improvised processes for established drugs 8212; in other words, its research work is at the heart of making the drugs available at affordable prices.

8216;8216;We no longer have a 9-to-5 work culture,8217;8217; says Dr R.A. Joshi, who8217;s in the team working on new drug discovery with Ranbaxy. At any time, NCL is training 400 research scholars 8212; 8216;8216;one of the largest pools of talent in the country8217;8217;.

Add to that the cost arbitrage, says O.P. Singh, CEO, Vaccines, Venkateshwara Hatcheries. 8216;8216;The infrastructure cost is one-third of any other country, the research cost one-fourth8230; we have talented people in large numbers.8217;8217;

But Dr S.S. Jadhav, Executive Director, Serum Institute of India, says Pune still has some miles to go before it can claim the 8216;hub8217; status. For that, the government must offer incentives too 8212; like tax holidays, tax concessions and make land available on the lines of the BT park at Hinjewadi.

Will there, funds too
THAT, of course, isn8217;t stopping the likes of Serum and Lupin and Venky8217;s, where the excitementis palpable. At Serum, the clinical trials for the new combination vaccine are over and awaits approval of the Drugs Controller General of India. The country8217;s leading vaccine manufacturer 8212; and exporter8212; with revenues worth Rs 555 crore now sends its products to 137 countries across the globe. It is the largest producer of measles and DPT group of vaccines in the world with a manufacturing capacity of 170 million doses per year for DPT and 300 million doses per year for the MMR vaccines.

According to Mukund Ranade, Vice-President, Business Development, Emcure Pharmaceuticals: 8216;8216;Several new products are on the pipeline in the anti-retroviral category. We have already tied up with large brand and generics companies in the US and Europe. For example, we signed an MoU with Actavis for working on filing of ANDAs abbreviated new drug applications and contract manufacturing.8217;8217; Emcure, which has an office in the US, manufactures and markets active pharmaceutical ingredients APIs, formulations and bio-pharmaceuticals.

Venky8217;s is investing Rs 60 crore over two years on infrastructure 8212; it has taken space at the BT Park like Emcure and Shreya Life Sciences 8212; and R038;D to take its human vaccines project further.

At Lupin 8212; when it didn8217;t have a plush campus it was working out of NCL 8212;drugs for migraine, psoriasis, TB are in the clinical trials stage. It is also working on the initial stages for diabetes and asthma. As Lupin Chairman Dr D B Gupta puts it, Lupin is aiming to touch the 1 billion mark by 2009. With Pune8217;s software exports already crossing the 1 billion mark and manufacturing going great guns, its pharma ambitions don8217;t seem to be misplaced. After all, Maharashtra had a biotech policy in place as far back as 2001.