Public health policy needed multidisciplinary research and end users should be included in guidelines development, said Padma Bhushan Prof K Srinath Reddy, professor and former president of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) here on Friday.
“Multi-disciplinary collaborations are now essential in health research. Clinical trial designs too are getting altered in response to the changing needs,” he added. Prof Reddy was delivering the 48th Sir Edward Mellanby Memorial Oration at CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) in Lucknow on the occasion of 72nd annual day of the institute.
“Science generates ideas and innovations whereas technology produces products. The drug research enterprise embraces science and enthusiastically extends it to medical technologies that impact human health in form of medicines,” he added. “The scientific community has to devise methods by which innovation is rewarded while giving priority to societal needs,” said Prof. Reddy.
While terming antibiotic resistance a global threat, chief guest Dr Habil Khorakiwala, the founder and chairman of Indian multinational pharmaceutical company Wockhardt said, “A silent pandemic of antibiotic resistant bacteria is causing huge mortality, morbidity and loss of productivity. Even though in two years of the Covid pandemic, the world saw about 6.7 million deaths due to it but in every single year about 4.9 million deaths occur due to antibiotic-resistant bugs.”
“Antibiotics are the centrepiece of modern medicine,” he added while informing that his company discovered novel antibiotics which saved the lives of patients infected with drug-resistant superbugs.
{{/usCountry}}“Antibiotics are the centrepiece of modern medicine,” he added while informing that his company discovered novel antibiotics which saved the lives of patients infected with drug-resistant superbugs.
{{/usCountry}}Institute’s director Radha Rangarajan, while briefing about the achievements of the institute in the past one year, said five drugs for Covid, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), drug resistant tuberculosis, thrombosis and fracture healing were under clinical trials. Also, three of them were already licensed to industry partners while two drugs were being developed with budgetary support from Indian Council of Medical Research.
“Similarly, another group of small molecule lead compounds is in advanced stages of IND enabling studies for malaria, leishmaniasis, chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain, colon cancer and hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol),” she added.