The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) will be filing an investigative new drug application for two new molecules for treatment of cancer and Alzheimer’s.

This was disclosed by IICT its director S Chandrasekhar on the sidelines of a felicitation function, held here on Wednesday, of former IICT director and founder-chairman of Avra Laboratories Pvt Ltd AV Ramarao, who has been honoured with Padma Bhushan (Science & Engineering).

Drug discovery “In line with the current demand for new drug discovery, we have been developing these two molecules which are in pre-clinical trials stage now,” he said, adding that after the approval from the Drug Controller General of India, the clinical trials were likely to begin by 2018.

“The molecule for Alzheimer’s is a natural product, while we are following the rate H-DAC path for cancer drug — the second in the world to do so.”

The CSIR lab is planning to license out the clinical trials to multinational companies as it does not have the wherewithal to conduct clinical trials on its own.

“Assuming the candidates will prove to be successful, the IICT will reserve the right to fix the drug price for the Indian population, to provide it cheaper,” he said.

Earlier, while responding to the felicitation, Rama Rao asked the scientific community in the CSIR labs to focus more on industrial research rather then publishing large number of papers without quality.

“The CSIR is not a university. It is a publicly funded research body for economic gain.”.

Rama Rao was honoured with Padma Shri in 1991.

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