Biotech fraternity speaks on soft aspect of drug development

Dr BV Ravi Kumar, MD, XCyton Diagnostics

An interdisciplinary session ontranslational research explored the way forward for drug discovery and elaborated on the major theme of soft aspect of drug development.

Chairing the session, Dr BV Ravi Kumar, managing director, XCyton Diagnostics, reflected that the major challenge in the realm for drug designing is the "ability to resurrect dying products".

Dr Gustaaf Van Reet, Board member and scientific advisor – Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Belgium and Viziphar Biosciences, observed that despite the dramatic reduction in the mortality rate over the past few decades and the coexistence of a plethora of needs and an equal number of opportunities, successful endeavors are still a rarity owing to the current knowledge gaps, technical gaps, reliability, liability, cost and affordability issues. He also suggested prognosis and prevention and individually targeted therapies as the emerging trends and strategies for the future.

Stating the mammoth scope of the biomedicine space, Dr DK Srivastava, professor, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, North Dakota State University, USA, said that there were many opportunities for young researchers in the space of identification of enzymes as potential drug targets. He also added that currently there are 14,000 proteins and 75 enzymes identifies as potential drug targets.

Dr John Watson, director, Pharma–Biotech, Promega Corporation highlighted India's potential contribution in the drug discovery space. He opined that chemical genomics, movement from genetics to drug discovery R&D, hunting for transitional opportunities and partnering with western companies as the next best step for the emerging Indian biotech fraternity.

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