Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Sep 05, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Sep 05, 2006 |
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Corporate
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Alliances & Joint Ventures Industry & Economy - Health Biocon arm Syngene, Swedish co to develop new diarrhoea drug Our Bureau
Bangalore , Sept. 4 Biocon's custom research subsidiary Syngene International and Swedish drug company Innate Pharmaceuticals AB have said they are working together on a new class of drugs - virulence blockers - against bacterial diarrhoea. Virulence blockers are considered to be an alternative to antibiotics but not exploited. Over the next three years, the two partners will conduct clinical studies and develop a candidate drug up to a limited phase II stage, manufacture and market it globally, a Syngene press release said. Once therapeutic effect is demonstrated, Syngene will conduct further clinical studies to enable the virulence blocker to be registered as a drug for treating bacterial diarrhoea. Innate will have European marketing rights and Syngene for the rest of the world. Each company will receive royalties on the sales achieved by the other. The tie-up is expected to bring the potential drug faster to the clinical trials phase. The drug disarms certain bacteria without affecting the body's normal bacterial flora; it reduces the chances of the bacteria getting drug-resistant. Innate Pharmaceuticals has worked on many of these substances and applied for patents. Biocon did not disclose the financial details, merely saying, "The cooperation greatly reduces Innate Pharmaceuticals' risk exposure and provides it with the financial capacity to further develop virulence blocking drugs. Additional resources will also allow Innate Pharmaceuticals to strengthen the patent protection for its virulence blockers." Innate Pharmaceuticals and Syngene have been working together in several projects over the past three years. "The new agreement reiterates our commitment to new research initiatives together," said Mr Sune Rosell, Innate CEO. Dr Goutam Das, COO, Syngene, said, "Together we are committed to developing virulence blockers as alternatives and complements to antibiotics. This effort is also towards a new class of targets hitherto not exploited." Diarrhoeal diseases affect over one billion people worldwide every year, causing around four lakh deaths in India and over 3,000 deaths in the US. Innate was formed in 2000 as a commercial platform for the research taking place at two Swedish institutions — Ume{macr} University and Karolinska Institute. The 12-year-old Syngene provides customised R&D services in early stage drug discovery and development to pharma and biotech companies.
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