JOIN USLow-cost TB drugs to be reality soon
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) collaborative initiative to develop low-cost drugs for infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB) is all set to become a success.
An anti-TB molecule, developed through CSIR’s Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative, will enter the first phase of clinical trials in a few months. Through this, OSDD will set a new milestone by linking researchers across the globe to solve key challenges in developing drugs for tropical diseases like malaria and TB which are otherwise ignored by big pharmaceutical research companies.
The project portal provides an open source platform for scientists, doctors, technocrats, software professionals and students to share knowledge. The collaborative approach, started four years ago, is designed to keep the cost of drug discovery low, thereby making the treatment affordable.
“Our target is to get into the first phase of the clinical trial of the anti-TB drug molecule in about six months,” CSIR Director-General Samir K Brahmachari said. He was talking to reporters after delivering the 25th Foundation Day lecture of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, a CSIR institute here.
India accounts for very high incidence of TB with over 1,000 deaths every day. Significantly, no new TB drug has come into market in the last five decades. “This is because the major pharmaceutical companies are not interested in a TB drug as it is seen as a poor man’s disease and does not fetch them enough money,” Brahmachari said.
“By 2022, we want to completely eradicate TB from India. With the availability of the new drug, the death rate can be brought down significantly,” he said and termed CSIR’s initiative unique as it allows the coming together of scientists interested in contributing for developing new drugs.
The OSDD initiative has been provided a funding of Rs 50 crore in the 11th plan and keeping in view the need to find new drugs for malaria and other diseases, it has been proposed to increase the funding to Rs 600 crore in the 12th plan period.
To increase the popularity of OSDD platform among young people, the CSIR has launched a video competition on YouTube. It is also collaborating for developing anti-malarial drug and the initiative got good support from the EU and Australia, Brahmachari said.