'Significant interest' in human drug absorption, microdosing and gastrointestinal studies from the Indian pharmaceutical market
Early phase clinical development specialist Pharmaceutical Profiles is reporting significant interest in its human drug absorption (HDA), microdosing and gastrointestinal studies from the Indian pharmaceutical market, and expects to announce its first major project from there soon.
The firm has been targeting India as a huge potential growth area for its business for the past two years.
It has sent key executives to research the industry and has made numerous presentations to scientists and clinicians from some of the country's leading pharmaceutical organisations and presented at key conferences.
HDA studies provide a vital understanding of intrinsic drug absorption and can be used to probe absorption mechanisms known directly to influence oral bioavailability.
The data gained from HDA studies assists pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to make key decisions, especially in consideration of sophisticated delivery systems to support the development of new molecular entities and in the life cycle management of marketed drugs.
Gastrointestinal studies, where the in vivo performance of sophisticated oral delivery technologies are evaluated using gamma scintigraphy, are of particular interest to Indian pharmaceutical companies as they look to develop novel gastroretentive, colon targeting and pulsatile tablets.
Microdosing studies, where microscopic amounts of drug candidates are screened in man, are also of considerable interest to the major Indian companies as they develop new potential 'blockbuster' drugs for North American and European markets.
"The Indian pharmaceutical industry has wide ranging capabilities in the complex field of drug manufacture, drug development and formulation technology.
It is a highly organised sector estimated to be worth around $4.5 billion, and is growing at about 8 to 9 percent annually," explained Pharmaceutical Profile's business development director Paul Clewlow, who has visited the country extensively. "It ranks very high in the world, in terms of technology, quality and range of medicines manufactured.
"From simple headache pills sold in UK supermarkets to sophisticated antibiotics and complex cardiac compounds, almost every type of medicine is now manufactured indigenously.
"It is also the case that the Indian pharmaceutical industry needs to seriously look at research and development into new products to drive the industry forward.
"In order to stay competitive in the future, Indian companies are refocusing to the West and investing heavily in R and D, and this is where an organisation with the expertise that we have can really help.
"!I recently presented to more than 100 scientists at a drug delivery conference in Mumbai who were keen to find out more about new ways to deliver old drugs and methods available for delivering new ones."
