PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Raju Rao in Chennai

A novel project is in the making!

For the first time, India is planning to launch an innovative drug discovery programme by roping in global IT firms, researchers, companies and even young minds at scientific laboratories to invent drugs at a fraction of the cost of an MNC drug. Under the proposed project, researchers attached to institutions like the Royal Society of UK, Imperial College of London, Medicine Sans Frontiers and various Indian universities will be able to work for a reward The project will also get the brightest scientists at various Indian universities and labs to work on it.

The impetus for this project could be the phenomenal success of many open source projects for e.g. Wikipedia .Indian corporates like Kinetic Group, entities like the Welcome Trust and various corporate groups will sponsor these rewards. Either the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) or the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology will implement the project. The government has already started talking to Sun Microsystems to set up Web-management tools for an ‘open source’ drug discovery project.

• The process - A database of the requirement has been prepared for developing drugs for infectious diseases. This will be hosted online where individual experts can contribute in solving specific aspects of the drug discovery. Specific contracts will then be assigned to individual contract manufacturers and clinical research organisations. The new chemical entities thus developed will instantly become generics as the knowledge will be in public domain.
  
  Incidentally, this is diametrically opposite to the concept of intellectual property protection, which involves legal expenses to bar others from applying their minds on the invention


• Funding - The project will get one-third funding from the government, one-third from international sources and the rest from philanthropic entities


• Organization - The project’s architect is Prof Samir K Brahmachari, CSIR’s new director general who also heads the department of industrial research
  
  
  
  Dr Samir Brahmachari
  
  For more details visit http://www.india-today.com/itoday/19991227/samir.html
  


• Generic cos may prefer this route - Drug discovery has hitherto been the forte of MNC pharmaceutical giants.It is likely that generics makers like Ranbaxy and Cipla could be more interested to make drugs developed this way, than by MNCs, as it would be volume-based. MNCs are more keen on low volume high value brands. If successful, the project would also challenge the claims of MNC drug makers who say they pour billions of dollars into many risky experiments with the hope of making one useful drug. Generics companies have been challenging such claims.


• Target drugs - The first project would be to develop medicines for tuberculosis, which would then be extended to other diseases like Malaria and HIV.

Finally, with doses of IT, Research & Rewards, Country Looks To Produce Cheaper Drugs than MNCs!


Source: The Economic Times Date: Dec 20, 2007

Raju Rao International Correspondent India, based in Chennai Raju Rao, PMP, is an International Correspondent for PMForum.org in Chennai, India. Mr. Rao is also principal consultant for Xtraplus Solutions, a PM consulting and training company based in Chennai. Mr. Rao has a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Madras, India; a Diploma in Management from the University of Bombay; an Advanced PM certificate from Stanford University; and a certificate from IIM Calcutta. Mr. Rao has over 30 years’ experience in engineering, process and project management and has been an active member of PMI for several years. He is currently a member of PMI’s OPM3 2008 Update project, and was a team member for development of several recent PMI standards. A founding member and vice president for the PMI Chennai Chapter, Raju is also a member of the PMI Pharmaceutical SIG, member and Chair of the Advisory Committee for the South India chapter of AACE International, and founder of the Indian Project Management Forum. Raju Rao lives in Chennai, India and can be contacted at rao.raju@gmail.com. Additional information about Mr. Rao can be found at http://www.pmforum.org/pm%20forum%20team/index.htm#5.