PERD's new capsule on tuberculosis could reduce treatment time

B V Patel Pharmaceutical Educational and Research Development (PERD) Centre here has developed a new capsule for the treatment of tuberculosis which they claim could cut short treatment duration from an average six months to three.

"The capsule comprising new formulation of Rifampacin and Isoniazid is designed for targeted drug delivery in stomach and intestine respectively of the patients, and its initial trials have shown very encouraging results," PERD Honorary Director, Prof C J Shishoo told PTI.

"The drug was tested on 12 healthy volunteers here, where we checked how much drug is reaching in their blood," he said. "The clinical trials of this new drug are now scheduled to begin at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at New Delhi, where it will be tested on 50 tuberculosis patients," Director of PERD Harish Padh said.

According to Padh, PERD was the first centre to establish way back in 1999 that Rifampacin and Isoniazid when administered in combination to tuberculosis patients lead to 30-35 per cent loss of impact of the former.

"The process leads to longer time duration of treatment in tuberculosis patients, which on an average stretches between six and nine months," he said.