Piramal Healthcare to spend Rs 200 cr on R&D this fiscal

Drug firm Piramal Healthcare will spend Rs 200 crore on various research and development activities this fiscal, including clinical trials for its two cancer molecules.

"The company plans to spend up to Rs 200 crore for research and development in financial year 2012-13," Piramal Healthcare Chief Financial Officer Rajesh Laddha told PTI.

The company is currently conducting Phase I clinical trials for its tumour suppressor treatment molecule 'P1446A- 05' and blood cell cancer treatment molecule 'P2745'.

It is also working on an investigational new drug (IND) application for conducting Phase I clinical studies of a molecule code named 'P7170'.

The trials results of the molecules are being presented at the annual general meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) being held at Chicago, Piramal Healthcare said.

The company, however, said it has not yet decided how it will commercialise its cancer treatment products as that is around three years from now.

"We have not decided how we will market these products as it will be nearly three years from now," Laddha added.

Commenting on the development Piramal Healthcare Director Swati Piramal said: "Our work in this area reaffirms our commitment to changing the paradigm of drug discovery by using Indian drug discovery capabilities to build a diversified and strong pipeline of products to address unmet medical need."

 Piramal Healthcare had sold its formulations business in May 2010 to Illinois-based Abbott for total cash consideration of $3.72 billion.

Shares of Piramal Healthcare today closed at Rs 467.60 on the BSE, down 0.33% from its previous close.