Daiichi Sankyo, Japan's third-largest drug maker, has transferred six of its early drug discovery programmes in inflammatory and infectious diseases from its Japanese research & development (R&D) facilities to India.
US giants are rushing to partner with Indian and Chinese companiestapping their brainpower and saving millions of dollars in the search for breakthrough treatments
PLSL's lead molecule under development for cancer treatment has completed two Phase-I studies.
Companies known for spending huge amounts on innovation globally have minuscule budgets for India. What's holding them back?
When AI is used to enhance operational efficiency, businesses can deliver the same product or service but with improved quality, faster, or even at a reduced cost
'After the discovery of the biomarkers, Calpain and Inflammasomes, we know we have a biomarker to target.' 'That way, we can use the biomarkers for an early diagnosis of blood clotting due to hypoxia or low oxygen in the tissues, and can save a life.'
Pointing at the value arbitrage in drug discovery that India offered, the government has invited the United States companies to forge partnerships with domestic biotech firms for research and development.
Research and development (R&D) spending by BSE 100 companies has grown steadily, rising from 0.89 per cent of revenue in FY20 to 1.32 per cent in FY24, averaging around 1 per cent over the period in-between, according to data compiled from Bloomberg and company annual reports. Also, these companies more than doubled their R&D spending in absolute terms over these five years: From Rs 25,041 crore to Rs 63,072 crore. While this reflects a prioritisation of innovation, corporate R&D investment remains relatively conservative.
After registering a net profit of Rs 25.1 crore in Q3FY25 and consolidated revenues growing by 7 per cent on a like-for-like basis, Siddharth Mittal, chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director, Biocon, told Sohini Das/Business Standard in a virtual interaction that local manufacturing in the US is a trade off between cost and qualifying to do business there.
Pharma company Ranbaxy Laboratories has entered into a long-term drug discovery and development agreement with the US-based pharma company Merck in the area of anti-infective medicines. Ranbaxy could earn over $100 million on each drug developed through the collaborative research programme. The agreement, announced on Monday, calls for joint research to develop clinically validated anti-bacterial and anti-fungal drug candidates.
The numbers are the highest ever in the history of domestic drug discovery initiatives triggered by companies such as Dr Reddy's and Ranbaxy over a decade ago.
US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Indian-American scientist Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the country's top health research and funding institutions. Bhattacharya, a professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, is known for his research on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations. Trump also nominated Jim O'Neill as the deputy secretary of Health and Human Services to work alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Companies are offering services in drug discovery and validation based on pathway analysis (that is, analysis of how toxic or radioactive substances reach humans), genomics (study of gene sequences in living organisms), proteomics (large-scale study of proteins) and translational research (clinical investigation with human patients or volunteers).
Major drug discovery outsourcing deals have almost dried up in the past 18 months for almost all prominent players in the area
I would like to renew our commitment to advancing the frontiers of science in drug discovery, says the chairman of Dr Reddy's Labs.
The recent pullout by ICICI Venture and Citigroup Venture from a three-year-old drug discovery partnership with Dr Reddy's Laboratories points to angel investors' growing aversion to risk in pharma and biotech firms, say experts.
The company has been developing donor-derived stem cell platforms.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI), climate tech and fintech sectors will be the hot areas for venture capitalists and founders in the next year, according to the prediction by Prashanth Prakash, founding partner of the global venture capital firm Accel Partners in India and the chairperson of Karnataka Startup Vision Group. Prakash said that about $25 billion has been invested into building Gen AI globally. But a lot of that capital has not yet come to India, opening up huge opportunities for startups in the country.
The review by the prime minister took note of the extraordinary coming together of academia, industry and government, combined with speedy but efficient regulatory process, an official statement said.
The Tata group has earmarked about Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) for investment over the next four years in Advinus Therapeutics, a joint venture floated by it and ex-Ranbaxy research head Rashmi Barbhaiya.
Most of the biotech companies are focusing on discovery-led innovation in biopharmaceuticals. The segment has been witnessing innovations in follow-on (new variants) biologics (commercial products derived from biotechnology) and vaccines with an emerging activity in discovery-led new drug development programmes.
Glenmark and its partners today said Crofelemer, a first-in-class (first of its kind) anti-diarrhoeal drug for HIV-associated diarrhoea, had successfully completed the third and final phase of clinical trials.
India's leading drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories is likely to announce a drug discovery research tie-up with US drug manufacturer Merck soon. Ranbaxy's ongoing research collaboration with GSK also relates to the pre-clinical trial phase of the new drug, with significant milestone payment and post-commercialisation royalty possibilities. Ranbaxy's decision to de-merge its research operations was intended at having more collaborative research programmes involving foreign firms.
More than 1,800 scientists, science teachers and educators have written an open letter raising concerns about the chapter on 'Theory of Biological Evolution' being dropped from the NCERT textbook for Class 10.
NPIL had announced that it would team up with the French company to develop a drug for the epidemic about six months ago, following the spread of the disease, mainly in southern India and Maharashtra in the last two years. Currently, drugs are not available to effectively treat the disease and doctors in the country administer viral disease drugs such as paracetamol and other anti-biotics to check the infection.
Two years after India entered the product patents regime, the year 2007 saw Indian drug firms striving to shed the copycat image and become innovators with emphasis on research activities even as they resisted moves to include more medicines under price control.
The government on Thusday said it is examining a proposal for setting up a venture capital fund to promote drug discovery in India.
The patent relates to the manufacturing process for the active ingredient in Sanofi-Aventis' Allegra and Allegra-D drug products. Both Dr Reddys and Sandoz are known to be marketing these products in the US.
The joint drug-discovery project of multinational pharma firm Wyeth and GVK Biosciences will fully take off within a month's time, following the establishment of a dedicated discovery chemistry research laboratory.
India's pharma companies are moving beyond generics to set their sights on the research and development of new drugs, but the risks are many
Paul Herrling, global head of Novartis' corporate research, spoke to Business Standard about the changing concepts in R&D and Novartis' strategy.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances