The Hindu Business Line : IonIdea developing Conformia’s drug discovery software

Bangalore, July 24 Outsourcing of software for drug discovery is gaining momentum in the country. India soon become the second largest FDA-approved drug manufacturing geography in the world.

Storing data

Software that will capture, store and access a wide range of data on quality of raw materials and chemicals used; obtain the expiry date; determine formulation of delivery mechanism to the body: be it in the form of capsules, tablets, injections, liquid medicines or syrup; deciding the colour, shade, shape, taste and flavour of the drug; its consistency; control over manufacturing processes; its efficacy in curing diseases and its side effects, etc., are being developed, run and maintained by Indian software firms.

IonIdea

One such firm is the Bangalore-based IonIdea, whose 104 engineers are working on SUMS (Scale up management solutions) software developed by the US-based Conformia. This software will help bring down the development time and enhance the scale up procedure from the current seven years to say three years.

IonIdea works on the detailed designing, coding, testing, documentation, development and to the complete roll-out of the product, said Mr Chandran Natarajan, President and Head of IonIdea’s Indian Operations, in a release.

New drugs

To develop a new drug costs $250 million and takes five to seven years for marketing after it’s discovery.

Discovery patents have a shelf-life of 14 years. If drug companies consume unto seven or more years for the development of the product, it leaves them high-and-dry with less time on hand when it comes to commercialising the product.

“Drug development is mostly driven by paper works. This is where drug companies actually lose out on time to commence commercial production and reach the market. Saving two-three years will definitely mean saving of almost $70-100 million on a single product,” said Mr Vinay Ambekar, Vice-President (Product Development), Conformia, in the release.

More Stories on : Pharmaceuticals | Outsourcing | Software

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