Address At The New Research And Development Centre Of Ranbanxy, Gurgaon

Leadership in Pharma Industry

I am delighted to participate in the inauguration of New Research & Development Centre of Ranbaxy. My greetings to the organizers, pharma technologists, chemists, doctors, academicians, industrialists and distinguished guests. I am happy to note that this R&D Centre is the third centre being established by Ranbaxy at Gurgaon with a focus on New Drug Development Research (NDDR) using New Chemical Entities (NCEs). The Centre will work in Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Infectious diseases, Bio-technology, Drug Metabolism, Pharmacokinetics and Herbal Drug Research. At this stage, let me pay my tributes to Dr. Parvinder Singh who had created a great vision to Ranbaxy well before a decade to excel in the new era of global competition and has enabled you to establish number of units in different parts of the world. Now I would like to discuss on certain research areas that may lead India to achieve "Leadership in Pharma Industry".

Evolution of research philosophy

As you all know that Johns Hopkins University in USA is doing a pioneering research work in medical field. I met Dr. Charles Cummings of the Johns Hopkins Board and his team, sometime back. I asked one question that was in my mind, to Dr Charles, "What made Johns Hopkins a world class medical research centre in addition to its cherishing societal missions?" His answer was, "it is a great tradition, and it started with a number of visionaries with value system and missions, working together. This tradition continues." I am sure this R&D Centre of Ranbaxy can take a lead from the above model and can become a pioneer in establishing a tradition of excellence in drug research and success in global business.

Competitiveness

Business symbolizes Competitiveness. Competitiveness leads to economic growth. Competitiveness is a single factor which will decide India transforming into a developed nation. Technology powers the competitiveness. Competitiveness leads to creation of a brand institution. New R&D Centre could be a unique research center for enabling Ranbaxy to become a global leader for certain classes of Drugs. The use of right technologies in R&D will bring in the right non-linear growth in the Pharma sector. When I visited Kyiev, Ukraine recently, I found rows of chestnut trees on both flanks of highways interspersed with Ranbaxy boards. It was a beautiful sight to see. When I met the members of Ranbaxy and other Pharma industrial team, I realized that you are working under severe competition. I am sure the present R&D work and global business development efforts will give you additional technological strengths to meet this challenge.

WTO Regime

From January 1st, 2005, the Indian pharma industry faces a challenge of demanding indigenous design of drugs, which has a profound impact on global competitiveness and business viability. As India had come into compliance with the TRIPS protocol mandated by the WTO, a new IPR regime is already in position. This extends patent protection to new product inventions. The new product patent regime will affect a sea change in the way Indian Pharma companies think and do business. I am sure the New Research & Development Centre will enable RANBAXY to meet this challenge better; as firm formulation of R&D based global business orientation has been made by RANBAXY as a part of its vision.

Health Vision 2020

A report on "Health Care in India" has been prepared by a panel of leading doctors and medical technologists in the country. It reports the typical problems facing us for two decades in the health care and possible solutions through technology. The expert team has identified three major diseases viz. tuberculosis, HIV and water-borne diseases, by next decade as methods to combat the diseases. This Health Vision document was studied by Dr. Parvinder Singh with TIFAC team. Ranbaxy took a decision to include disease based drugs in their product profile. Let us further discuss some of the emerging technologies, which will have tremendous influence in the field of drug delivery.

The science of proteomics and gene chip

India missed the great opportunity in partnering the human genome project and thereby lost the utility of right type of data. I suggest the Indian biomedical community to take the initiative to become a working partner in the proteomics project of gene characterization. Proteomics is the study of all the proteins expressed by the genome of a cell. It is the logical extension of genomics. Proteomics helps to understand the basic biological processes critical to normal cellular functions as well as the development of diseases. It identifies the essential components of these processes and exploits these components as targets in the development of new methods to prevent or treat diseases. The national programme on proteomics has to be accelerated with partnership from industries and R & D laboratories. I would suggest that this should be pursued as a mission mode project. The proteomics resulting into a gene chip can become the future diagnosis and treatment regime for many diseases. The new R&D Centre of Ranbaxy must be aware of the progress made in the proteomics programme and understand the processes at the molecular level so that the genetic characterization leading to forecasting and diagnosis of the disease for adopting suitable preventive and curative measures.

Gene Chip

Last year I visited Dr. Cherian's Medical Centre at Chennai. It is known as, International Centre for Biomedical Sciences and Technology (Research & Applications). There I interacted with Dr. Emmanuel, who is working in the area of Gene Chip. He says the Gene Chip can be used for finding the existence of genetic diseases including coronary artery diseases or neuro defect in the baby during a certain stage of pregnancy itself. The chip could also be modified to suggest to the patient's system to develop those chemicals which in turn will help the patient recover from the present situation. The specialists assembled here must debate whether gene chip can be used for identifying the susceptibility of the baby to the allergic diseases in the advanced stage of pregnancy. Can medical bio-informatics help in finding a treatment regime for the mother which may give immunity to the child from the allergic disease. The new R&D Centre of Ranbaxy should work with research centres for maximizing the application of medical bio-informatics for diagnostics and determination of treatment regime.

It is reported that gene differences between humans and most animals are very nominal. More than 90% of our DNA is similar. This property is a boon to researchers since animal models can be subsequently used for curing human diseases based on trial data. I would recommend the medical researchers to progress further in this area for finding the application of Gene Chip as a diagnostic tool and as a treatment regime for allergic diseases and asthma.

Nano-bio technologies

Nanotechnology is knocking at our doors, which has wider applications. With the emergence of Nanotechnology, there is convergence of nano bio info technologies resulting new devices which has wider applications in structure, electronics, and healthcare and space systems. It will be the central focus for many technologies to converge and open a large number of applications. Further, this technology will have a large domestic market potential leading to a robust economy. Nano-bio medical sensors will play a major role in glucose detection and endoscopic implants. Nanotechnological application to drug delivery system will revolutionize the health-care to a large extent.

The world market in 2005 for nano materials, nano tools, nano devices and nano biotechnology put together is expected to be over two hundred billion dollars. I have come across number of patents being filed by Dr. Maitra of Delhi University especially in the area of Drug delivery system. I would suggest the members of this Research Centre may like to explore this area for nano technology application and if necessary create national and global partnership to get strategic leadership in this emerging area.

Molecule to drug

In India many R&D organizations and Pharma industries discover the molecules, but most of these newly discovered pharmaceutical molecules are sold to multinationals abroad for further development to drug. Naturally, the benefit of value addition goes to the companies abroad. The research and drug design, development and acceptance for introduction are a big mission. Molecule to drug is indeed the business of strong minds with the capacity to take calculated risks. In this connection, I recall the principle taught by my Guru Prof Satish Dhawan, "If one takes challenging tasks, problems will always occur. But problems should not become masters of the doers. Instead the problem has to be defeated and we should succeed." I am happy to know that this Research Center is going to work on discovering new molecules and transform them into drugs with special focus on Drug Development for Respiratory disorders, Urinary tract infection, metabolic disorders and Novel antibiotics for upper tract infection.

Traditional health care: Experiences

I would like to share my experiences while I was in Anna University, Chennai. One of them resulted in getting a patent for a new molecule discovered from a herb as an anti cancer drug. This came out of the fusion of two great minds, one was a bio technologist and the other was a traditional Siddha medical practitioner. The traditional system of medicine like Ayurveda, Siddha etc., have advocated and practiced preventive and curative medicinal recipes specific to individuals. The body, mind, food and environment were looked at holistically to suggest a preventive or curative approach to health. Medicinal plants offer enormous scope for development of drugs. We need to create database of traditional medicinal plants for specific bioactivity and lead for development of new drugs. India has got tremendous opportunities for herbal farming and research. I understand that R&D Centre of Ranbaxy has got partnership with Centre for Biotechnology of Anna University in realizing certain special formulations. The R&D Centre is also collaborating with CIMAP Lucknow, IIT Roorkee and CDRI, Lucknow. This partnership definitely will lead to drug discovery.

The traditional medicines are generally used within the country. International marketing will need the products to go through standardization and series of tests prescribed by the relevant approving authority. Ranbaxy can provide leadership in standardizing the traditional medicine drugs towards achieving the international standards. Your success will spread in the country for the development and marketing of Indian traditional medicine.

Conclusion: Vision for Ranbaxy

I have given some possible new areas which can be launched by Ranbaxy during the next decade:

I can trace back the movement of Ranbaxy from 1961 from where you have progressed from a manufacturer of bulk drug to become one of the leading global generic drug companies today. Now Ranbaxy has also moved on to become a research based drug development and manufacturing organisation. Your entry into Novel Drug Delivery System and New Chemical Entities will truly ensure your achieving the vision of becoming a research driven global Pharma Company. In this process you have created a strong capability in Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) and a capability to go through the rigorous US-FDA approval. Let me share with you few thoughts:

a. Ranbaxy can aspire to become the first in global generic Pharma market by 2010 through R&D.

b. Second area is New Molecule Drug Development. I understand you have acquired a malarial drug molecule and you are progressing towards clinical trials. You are also working on few new molecules which may enter the market by 2007. You must enlarge your vision to put a higher target of putting at least five new molecule drugs to be put in the global market by 2010.

c. Third area, you can pay attention to is, Orphan Drug Molecule which is controlled by the low volume need, specific to the particular country. Business volume may not be high initially but once developed many applications can follow leading to profitability. In addition to profitability, the drugs developed will serve the purpose in the third world and also enhance the R&D capability of Ranbaxy as a global player.

d. Time has come for the Indian Pharma industry to become multinational companies as an individual or consortium competing in global market.

This will be a fitting tribute to Dr. Parvinder Singh and to our country, which was a leader in medical sciences, during the early centuries of the first millennium.

While inaugurating the Research & Development Centre of Ranbaxy, I wish you all success in your mission of developing, producing and marketing cost effective quality drugs and delivery systems in the global arena.

May God Bless You.