It’s in our genes! Time we used it

Gene therapy might be the answer to a disease-wracked country like India, but it first needs medical and science professionals to believe in it, say doctors

A shortage of organs for transplant may soon be a thing of the past in India. According to Nori Kasahara, director of the Vector Core at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), groups in the US are experimenting with “growing” new kidneys and liver using gene therapy and regenerative tissue.

“They’ve already succeeded in creating skin and bladders,” he says. “Now they’re onto other organs as well.” And, as Kasahara points out during a three-day gene therapy conference in the city, in a not-too-distant future, India could benefit from this breakthrough research.

Gene therapy, the experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent disease, has been a boon in treating various types of cancer. But India could go a step further and exploit the ongoing research in DNA and gene-based vaccines, to actually put an end to infectious diseases.

Biotech breakthroughs could eventually eradicate Hepatitis C, HIV and other tropical ailments like malaria and tuberculosis. Provided, that is, we give gene therapy a shot.

Of the 200-odd biotech companies in the country, most are involved in agriculture; only a few are employing gene therapy in medicine. So what is holding India back?

Incredibly, it’s not a lack of funds. Sanjeev Saxena, CEO of the biotech firm Actis Biologics, says, “There are a lot of entrepreneurs who want to invest in gene therapy, but don’t know where to find partners in science to collaborate with.”

Last year, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) allegedly found that about 60-70 per cent of the funds set aside for research, could not be allocated. “People are only interested in basic research,” says Saxena.

“They don’t look at their study as having possible commercial value.” By comparison, the National Institute of Health in the US, which sets aside $2 billion in biotech R&D, and agencies in Europe that allocate $300 to $400 million, usually find their grants falling short.

India also needs proper regulatory mechanisms, says Ramani Aiyer, chief scientific officer at Actis. The DBT and the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) are effective watchdogs, but Farzin Farzaneh, president of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy recommends an independent body that will have government representatives, academics, religious heads, industry and lay people.

In this, he says, India could certainly take a lesson from China, which “came up from behind to take the lead” in global gene therapy initiatives “with enlightened regulatory and political standpoints on products”.

For instance, while the US FDA requires a product to show, through clinical tests, that it increases the life expectancy of a consumer, in China it is sufficient to show that the drug has reduced the tumour.

There are other advantages to leverage. According to Farzaneh, India should also tap into its considerable homegrown scientific talent and liaise with Indian-origin scientists working abroad.

“Then we could say that the future of gene therapy in India looks bright,” he says.