GVK BIO licenses toxicity database to AstraZeneca

GVK Biosciences (GVK BIO) has licensed its Mechanism Based Toxicity Database (MBT) to AstraZeneca. The license represents an extension of the existing license of all the GVK BIO Target and Drug databases. The GVK BIO Databases contain over 3.2 million compounds manually curated from patents and journals and represent over 7 million quantitative SAR data points.

Sreeni Devidas, vice president, business development, GVK BIO said that the MBT provides easily accessible information on known toxic effects of over 13,000 compounds from the literature, which will be made available to researchers in AstraZeneca.

The Informatics division is responsible for analyzing data to transform chemical/biological patterns into knowledge.

British Biologicals with Finland-based Raisio launches Benecol in India

Bangalore-based British Biologicals has entered into a business partnership with Raisio Nutrition of Finland. Under the partnership, it will be launching for the first time in Asia, Raisio's Plant Stanol Ester – Benecol under the brand name Colred Benecol, a nutritional product, which is said to reduce cholesterol naturally.

VS Reddy, MD, British Biologicals, said Raisio had selected British Biologicals, endearingly called "the protein people", for being among India's top company in nutraceuticals. British Biologicals has a good market presence.

Reddy said the company was exporting nutraceutical products to 15 countries and was planning to foray the European and the US markets soon. He disclosed that in the next two months British Biologicals would firm up a business partnership in Russia. It was also developing products to suit the requirements of African countries, thus making its intentions clear of having a pan-global presence.

Presently, the brands under the fold of British Biologicals included B – Protin; D-Protin (for diabetics); Pulmocare (for lungs) Pro-Pl (for pregnant and lactating mothers); Kids Pro (for growing children); Hepa Pro (Hepatoprotector); Meno Pro (for Menopause: Medi Slim (for slimming: AX Kal (alternative to sugar) and now ColRed (which reduces cholesterol naturally).

V Sridhar, executive director, said that British Biologicals enjoyed a market share of around 23 percent in ethical nutrition supplement market and was considered one of the fastest growing nutraceutical companies in India. The company's strength was its research based nutrition supplement. With such R&D, it would soon be launching products in specialities such as orthopedics, oncology, nephrology and cardiology.

GSK launches two innovative vaccines

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals has launched two new innovative Diphtheria, Tetanus and acellular Pertussis (DTP) vaccines -Boostrix and Infanrix. Unlike traditional vaccines, acellular vaccines provide far more comfort to parents and the children due to substantially reduced pain, fever and swelling. Worldwide, acellular DTP vaccines are a part of routine immunization.

Infanrix is indicated for childhood immunization against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis for newborns from 6th week of age. When combined with Hib vaccines, it reduces the number of pricks and visits to the doctor.

Boostrix can be administered to older children above 7 years of age, adolescents and adults and will boost the waning immunity against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. Studies have shown that immunity against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis wanes after childhood immunization as protection lasts up to 4-12 years after vaccination. Due to waning immunity, incidence of pertussis and diphtheria is increasing in adolescents and adults. Of concern is the fact that adults can pass pertussis infection to infants leading to high disease burden. Till date there was no vaccine available in India, which could be given to this age group.

GSK's Boostrix is USFDA approved and well accepted in 58 countries. American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends Boostrix at 10 years of age.

Dr Hasit Joshipura, managing director, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, said, "GSK India remains committed to providing the latest and most effective preventive care particularly for children. The launch of Infanrix and Boostrix will be a step forward in this mission."

MDR tuberculosis cases continue to rise

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been recorded at the highest rates ever, according to a new report published on February 26, 2008. The report presents findings from the largest survey to date on the scale of drug resistance in tuberculosis.

The report, "Anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in the world", is based on data collected between 2002 and 2006 on 90 000 TB patients in 81 countries. It found that extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a virtually untreatable form of the respiratory disease, has been recorded in 45 countries, a WHO release said.

The report also found a link between HIV infection and MDR-TB. Surveys in Latvia and Ukraine found nearly twice the level of MDR-TB among TB patients living with HIV compared with patients without HIV.

Based on the analysis of the survey data, WHO estimates there are nearly half a million new cases of MDR-TB a year, which is about 5 percent of nine million new TB cases of all types. The highest rate was recorded in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where nearly a quarter of all new TB cases (22.3 per cent) were reported as multidrug-resistant.

Proportions of MDR-TB among new TB cases were 19.4 per cent in Moldova, 16 per cent in Donetsk in Ukraine, 15 per cent in Tomsk Oblast in the Russian Federation, and 14.8 per cent in Tashkent in Uzbekistan. These rates surpass the highest levels of drug resistance published in the last WHO report in 2004. Surveys in China also suggest that MDR-TB is widespread there.

"TB drug resistance needs a frontal assault. If countries and the international community fail to address it aggressively now we will lose this battle," said Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO Stop TB Department. "In addition to specifically confronting drug-resistant TB and saving lives, programs worldwide must immediately improve their performance in diagnosing all TB cases rapidly and treating them until cured, which is the best way to prevent the development of drug resistance."

Avesthagen launches 7 plant–based bioactives

Bangalore-based Avesthagen has launched seven new botanical bioactives under the Avesta brand aimed to promote wellness through prevention of specific degenerative conditions like diabetes, bone loss and cardiovascular diseases. The bioactives will be available as dietary supplements as well as in cereal bars and cracker categories.

Avesthagen uses two of its patented technologies to develop the bioactives; Adept, a comprehensive database that brings together traditional medicine with modern systems biology and MetaGrid, a unique algorithm that enables comprehensive constituent profiling. The metabolic fingerprints generated not only help chararacterize the bioactives but also help in quality control and assurance. The MetaGrid also helps maintain batch-to-batch reproducibility of the bioactive, which is an issue in conventional systems. Avesthagen uses cell-based assays and GLP-compliant preclinical studies to ensure safety and efficacy of the bioactives. Organoleptic optimization is done to improve the taste and other properties. The bioactives are manufactured in an ISO 9001:2000, ISO22000:2005 facility.

The bioactives launched include Aspand (controls blood sugar), Teestar (moderates blood sugar levels), Cincata (maintains blood glucose levels), Bonapure (promotes bone growth), Phytossea (assists in inhibiting cartilage degradation), Smartchol (moderates cholesterol levels) and Xanomax (has antioxidant properties).

Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, founder, CMD of chairperson and managing director of Avesthagen, during the launch, said, "We strongly believe that science and technology is the way to bring to the people the immense knowledge base of traditional medicine resulting in quality ingredients that add to taste and health needs. Avesthagen's goal is to incorporate great-tasting, life-enhancing natural ingredients into the world's lifestyle. We have extensively studied the market and our bionutrition development team has created bioactives with variants that hold tremendous uses for the consumer. These seven bioactives will be followed by many more that are in the pipeline.

Chronic diseases contributed approximately 60 percent of the 56.5 million total reported deaths in the world and approximately 46 percent of the global burden of disease in 2001. The proportion of the burden of these diseases is expected to increase to 57 percent by 2020. This increase in the number of chronic diseases and degenerative conditions across the globe has spurred interest in these health-promoting ingredients.

India to open first biofuels and bioenergy science center

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in the Ministry of Science & Technology has funded the establishment of the country's first Center of Energy Biosciences (CEB).

The CEB, an investment of $6.1 million, aims to raise an additional $4 million, and has received the specific task of developing cutting-edge biofuels, bioenergy and biohydrogen technologies capable of converting lignocellulosic biomass into transportation fuels.

The center has the charter to develop bio-based renewables in order to reduce India's rising dependence on petroleum fuels and to cut down emissions of greenhouse gases. For the purpose, the CEB will establish advanced pilot biofuel plants and create research partnerships with leading biotechnology, industry and academic organizations from India, the US and other countries. The center is to be established at the University of Mumbai, Institute of Chemical Technology.

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