The Hindu Business Line : CSIR starts open source effort to fight diseases

Hyderabad, Oct. 1 Poor people in tropical countries like India continue to suffer the wrath of diseases such as TB, malaria, kala azar, which takes a toll on life and affects productivity.

Multinationals still shy away from investing on research to develop drugs or vaccines to fight them for reasons of profit. The net result is the continuing virulence of such diseases in developing countries.

Given its scientific capabilities, India is attempting to take the lead in creating a platform to take the fight against these diseases through a national effort called the Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD).

Indian initiative

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research will spearhead the initiative.

The Union Government has pledged a commitment of Rs 150 crore for the project. An equivalent amount is expected to be raised through international agencies and donors.

The first target under the OSDD would be TB. This was announced at the four-day 13th International Meeting of the Human Genome, which concluded here on Tuesday, by the Director-General of CSIR, Prof Samir K. Brahmachari.

The OSDD is styled on the success of open source models in information technology and biotechnology (human genome sequencing) and is targeted at affordable healthcare for all.

Why TB?

Prof Brahmachari told newspersons that though the genome of the bacteria causing TB was sequenced in 1998, it still posed great challenges. It is a major problem in India and there have not been breakthroughs in newer drugs or vaccines.

According to the WHO, one third of the world’s population is infected with TB, of this about 60 per cent are from 22 countries.

In India, an estimated 370,000 deaths occur each year due to the disease, of the incidence of 1.8 million new cases.

Open source

The OSDD would be open to researchers, scientists, software professionals and students to contribute and help in coming out with solutions — affordable drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, etc., to control the diseases affecting developing countries by using drug research, genomics and IT.

The initiative has garnered the support of Sun Microsystems, TCG Lifesciences, Institute of Microbial Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Institute for Genomics & Integrative Biology, and is open to global collaborations, the CSIR chief said.

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