Neglected diseases’ research on pharma horizon

For domestic pharma companies, lifestyle diseases are in vogue when it comes to drug discovery and development.

Almost every firm worth its name such as Dr Reddy’s, Cadila Healthcare, Piramal Healthcare and Glenmark Pharma, has been trying hard to strategise new molecules for treatment of diseases, including cancer, obesity and diabetes.

But ailments like kala azar, filariasis and dengue fever are relatively unheard in the novel research context. Kala azar, filariasis and dengue fever are collectively called as neglected diseases, a term coined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to describe diseases which most companies avoid doing research as they primarily affect millions of people in developing economies who cannot afford to pay for medicines.

Now, pharma industry experts say, as drugmakers increase focus on emerging markets they would have to look at developing drugs for these neglected diseases.

A senior industry official who has worked with several Indian drugmakers, said, “Companies like Dr Reddy’s and Ranbaxy have been saying that they would focus more on emerging countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific. So, they will have to develop specific focus on neglected diseases when it comes to new drug discovery.”

As per consulting and analytics firm IMS, developing countries like India and Brazil are expected to grow by 14-15% in 2009, as against a measly 1-2% growth expected in the US and 3-4% in the European Union.

“Emerging economies are plagued with the neglected diseases. So, drugmakers would have to diversify their focus to include neglected diseases, if not now, then at least in the near future,” said the official.

According to Neelima Joshi, vice president (biological research), Glenmark Pharma, from 1980s only about 3-4% of the total novel drugs that have come to the market target neglected diseases.

“Neglected diseases require a lot of extensive basic bioscience research, which is lacking at present,” said Joshi.

As per the WHO figures, over 165 million people in India, mostly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand are at the risk of kala azar, which is caused by the sand fly and results in damage to the spleen and the liver.

In an earlier interview with this newspaper, Rashmi Barbhaiya, CEO and MD of Advinus Therapeutics, a Tata group promoted drug research company, had said that as global companies haven’t given enough attention to neglected diseases, Advinus is focusing on it aggressively.

Advinus, which is currently working on bringing out molecules in kala azar, would in future also look at filariasis, dengue fever, tuberculosis, Barbhaiya  had said.

Rajender Kamboj, president, novel drug discovery & development, Lupin, said, “There are incidences of neglected diseases in India, so this area has to be focused upon in future.”

Hitesh Sharma, partner & national leader, health science practices, Ernst & Young, said, “I think the important aspect is that significant basic research comes from varsities. If we strengthen that in India, various unmet requirements for the industry to do research will come through.”