The Hindu Business Line : Dr Reddy's diabetic drug enters phase I trials

Perlecan Pharma Private Ltd, India's first integrated drug development company, promoted jointly by Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd with equity from ICICI Venture Funds Management Company Ltd and Citigroup Venture Capital International Mauritius Ltd, is conducting the trials.

The Phase I clinical trials, will test the safety and tolerability of the candidate (DRL-16536) drug on healthy volunteers. It is a novel agent that works by activating the biological pathways, responsible for providing the beneficial effects of exercise.

Targeting exercise pathways using the potential drug has provided glucose lowering and lipid lowering effects in pre-clinical disease models. It also has the added potential for weight loss, Dr Reddy's claimed in a press release here on Tuesday.

The current treatment options for type 2 diabetes, the most common in India, work through other mechanisms and may not provide the overall beneficial clinical effects needed, the release said. DRL 1536 has been extensively studied in pre-clinical toxicity and pharmacokinetic experiments. It is expected to be dosed once a day to achieve its therapeutic benefit in the clinic.

Dr K. Anji Reddy, Chairman, Perlecan Pharma and founder Chairman of Dr Reddy's Laboratories said, "DRL 1536 is the fourth asset from Perlecan and the third `first-in-class' compounds from Dr Reddy's discovery research to go into clinical development. We are confident of discovering drugs fro prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome."

Perlecan Pharma provides Dr Reddy's drug discovery programme, a model to rapidly advance its existing as well as future New Chemical Entities (NCE) assets through Phase II trials and seek out-licensing, co-development or joint commercialisation opportunities. It has received four NCEs, including all titles and rights of development and commercialisation so far.