Personalised medicine an evolving field

Drug Discovery and Development workshop - Day 17

Hyderabad: The Day 17 of the workshop on ‘Drug Discovery and Development’ being organised by the FABA Academy, in partnership with the University of Hyderabad and Science Gurus started with a discussion on drug repurposing and the need for cost-effective therapies for patients. Being held from March 13 to April 2, this workshop is also supported by World Trade Center Shamshabad & Visakhapatnam.

Dr Uday Saxena, Co-founder and CEO of Reagene Innovations, made a presentation about drug repurposing and its potential to accelerate the relief of patients. He stressed the responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry to provide safe and effective therapies to patients in a timely and cost-effective manner, without misleading them.

During his talk, Dr Saxena explained about drug repurposing and also highlighted the challenges of drug repurposing and discussed risk mitigation strategies associated with it. Further, he discussed the use of nutraceuticals, which is naturally occurring compounds found in foods or supplements that have potential health benefits. He suggested that targeted molecular nutraceuticals could also be developed through drug repurposing and could reduce the time to market for new therapies.

Interestingly, Dr Saxena further revealed how his company worked on drug repurposing for type-2 diabetes and introduced its medicine, Divitiz. This medicine targets specific molecular steps and has been shown to lower fasting glucose in patients. Dr Saxena explained how drug repurposing can significantly reduce the time it takes to bring a drug to market, and how targeted molecular nutraceuticals can further reduce this time. He concluded by emphasising that innovation can be incremental if it provides relief to patients. Dr Saxena’s talk shed light on the importance of drug repurposing and its potential to improve patient outcomes while reducing the time and cost associated with drug development.

During the latter part of the workshop, Dr Ajith Kamath, Advisor, Pandorum Technologies delivered a talk on personalised medicine, which is a rapidly evolving field in healthcare. He began by introducing the concept of personalised medicine and its potential to revolutionise the way we approach disease treatment.

Dr Kamath highlighted the application of personalised medicine in cancer and other diseases such as obesity and Parkinson’s. He also discussed the personalised medicine approach of gene therapy and its potential to target specific genetic mutations responsible for certain diseases. Further, Dr Kamath explained the importance of the liquid biopsy, next-generation targets, and multiple inhibitors for the same kinase drug. He introduced CANscript, a novel platform that challenges tumors with multiple drugs, and the clinical validation study supporting its use. He also presented a case study on HNSCC cancer and the testing of drug concentrations using tumor biopsies, emphasising the need for next-generation drugs.

Additionally, Dr Ajith discussed the potential of personalised medicine for hereditary diseases, citing an example of gene therapy for blindness and a drug for Batten disease. Consequently, emphasizes the importance of one-person trial and the need for personalised medicine to provide the right treatment to the right person at the right time.

Dr Thamsanqa Chiliza from South Africa delivered a presentation on Mycobacterium tuberculosis biomarker targets for TB Drug Discovery.

Overall, the workshop proved to be an opportunity for participants to engage in idea exchange, enhance their knowledge, and develop their skills in the field of drug discovery and development.