Advinus looks for tieups

The Tata Group-promoted Advinus Therapeutics is likely to license its diabetes molecule to other companies, according to Tata Sons executive director R Gopalakrishnan.

Advinus is set to initiate talks with pharma companies for further drug trials, he added.

In a recent release, Advinus announced the discovery of a novel molecule for the treatment of type II diabetes – GKM -001. The molecule is an activator of an enzyme that regulates glucose balance and insulin secretion in the body. GKM-001 is an indigenously developed molecule and the initial clinical trials have shown good results.

“Considering the past failures of other companies on this target, our discovery programme focused on identifying a molecule that would be efficacious without causing hypoglycemia; a side-effect associated with most compounds developed for this target,” said Rashmi Barbhaiya, managing director and chief executive officer of Advinus.

It is estimated that there are about 300 million adult (between 20 and 79 years) diabetics worldwide. It is also expected that by 2030, about 450 million people worldwide would be diabetics. Type II diabetes constitutes 85-95 per cent of all diabetes cases. In India itself it is estimated that there are about 51 million diabetics in 2010 and this number in all likelihood will go up to 80 million by 2030.

At present, five full-discovery programmes are on at Advinus for internal research. Advinus has a collaboration with Merck (US) for drug discovery in the area of metabolic diseases. The company has a drug discovery centre in Pune that focuses on diabetes, obesity, lipid disorders, inflammatory diseases and neglected diseases like dengue and malaria. Its Bangalore centre has a collaboration with DNDi (Drugs for Neglected), he said.

‘Golden Agri’ project
Tata Sons is also looking at augmenting its crop protection solution services and is looking at Japanese companies for collaboration. The group now has Tata chemicals for plant nutrients and Rallis India for crop protection.

“We are looking for a meaningful role in the seed segment, which is the missing link in the plant protection products business,’’ said Gopalakrishnan.