The Hindu Business Line : ‘Nanomedicine is at the frontline of new drug delivery’

Drug researchers are going to unimaginably small or ‘nano’ lengths — a millionth of a millimetre or less — to create accurate disease detection, affordable cures and targeted medicine.

In India, if Dabur brought the first nanotechnology-based delivery system with onco drug Nanoxel this year, Biocon says it will launch breast cancer nanodrug Abraxane, developed by Abraxis Biosciences, US, in early 2008.

‘Sizeable impact’

Also being mentioned in the Indian nano-league is Bharat Biotech, while Ayurveda practitioners would show off their nano-based gold/silver bhasmas.

Nanomedicine, that involves drug particles engineered to the size of an atom, is already making sizeable impact as chemotherapy, diagnostics and quantum dot-based biomarkers for onco-surgery. The future should see novel drugs, deliveries, skin implants, silver gels, tissue-repair patches, knee joints, valves, prosthetics and more.

“Nanomedicine is at the frontline of new drug delivery,” Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD of Biocon Ltd, told Business Line.

“[It] is playing a key role in life cycle management of existing drugs, where novel formulations based on nanomaterials are enhancing bioavailability and efficacy, and [reducing] side-effects.”

Better drugs

Nanotech enables companies to develop better drugs, she said, adding, “Biocon is about to launch Abraxane, a nanoparticle-based taxane” with superior efficacy.

Mr Bhuvaneashwar Subramanian, Frost & Sullivan’s Senior Research Analyst-Technical Insights (Healthcare), told a recent nanotechnology meet here that with the global nano-biotech market growing from $8.53 billion in 2005 to $20.5 billion in 2011, nano seems to be the next big thing.

According to Prof Amarnath Maitra of the University of Delhi’s Chemistry Department and one of India’s leading nano-missionaries, nanotech can change the face of the healthcare sector as it cuts doses of antibiotics, lowers side-effects and drug wastage.

Oral drugs

Other possibilities are new oral drugs, affordable and faster treatment of diseases like malaria and TB, said Prof Maitra, whose not-so-nano credits include transfer of six technologies to industry; work with Dabur; hunt for malaria vaccine; 11 national patents and six international patents.

Prof Maitra said, during 1984-2004, 38 nanotech healthcare products were available globally with annual sales of $6.8 billion. In the US, Abraxane has made $175 million sales.

Despite much nano activity and the new Rs 1,000-crore Central dole, the Indian scene is nascent, with Rs 200 crore invested in five years. "The nano-drug industry has not matured enough to talk of a market, as the research is happening in the IITs and the IISc. A product may take 10-15 years to evolve," Mr Subramanian said.

"We need to find buyers for our nanotechnology and enter into rapid collaborations with companies overseas," he added. Yet, with long-term safety concerns still to be allayed, "You should also be cautious as you don't know what's coming up next."

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