The Hindu Business Line : Prospective antibiotics, psoriasis drugs to hit clinics this year: Piramal

Mumbai, Sept. 8 Piramal Life Sciences (PLS) expects three more prospective drug molecules to enter their first phase of trials on humans by the end of this fiscal.

Two of these prospective drug molecules are antibiotics, while the third targets psoriasis, a skin condition, Dr Swati Piramal, the Group’s Director Strategic Affairs told Business Line. Toxicity tests on these prospective molecules have been done in the US, she added.

The demerged research entity of drug-maker Piramal Healthcare, PLS already has five of its 15 prospective new chemical entities undergoing clinical trials — and they are in the cancer and metabolic disease segments.

Phase I of the clinical trials involves the first ever exposure of the proposed new drug to humans, where it is given to a small group of volunteers. As more molecules enter clinical trials, the performance of the research entity will be measured by the progress they make.

Piramal Healthcare’s rationale behind demerging the research entity was to bring in funds when it was required to scale up research efforts. In fact, the management has also said that it would off-load 10 per cent equity in the research entity in about a year, to bring in additional funds.

Off-load equity

But with market conditions as they are, Dr Piramal indicated that the company would take its time on the decision. “We know it (the research entity) has value, why should I give away the crown jewel at a low price,” she pointed out. Independent valuations have estimated the research entity to be valued at between $480 million and $540 million, company top-brass have said in the past.

For researching a new drug, being as difficult as it is, several drug companies including Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Glenmark have adopted different strategies to sustain this capital-intensive arm of the pharmaceutical business. Explaining PLS’ strategy, Dr Piramal said, “(One of the) few things we have done right is to have kept away from generics (chemically similar copies of innovative drugs).” And for something that takes 10 years, “we have kept the same research head for long” she added.

The research company is headed by Dr Somesh Sharma and has on its board three Fellows of the Royal Society, Dr R.A. Mashelkar (former CSIR chief), Prof Goverdhan Mehta and Sir R. Maini.

Overseas scientists

Also, she said, the centre was attracting scientists from overseas. About 15 per cent of the 400-odd scientists at the centre come from abroad, from Canada, the US and Europe.

As a result, they are familiar with the regulatory affairs there, she said, which helps since the company does its clinical trials in these countries.

The research centre also has a library of 50,000 microbes and a core group of 50 researchers scan for herbal leads that could be developed into a drug, she said. The company expects to have a drug from its research in the market by 2010-11.

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