Signalling a growing interest in new drug discovery research, some major Indian pharmaceutical firms had applied for conducting clinical trials on at least 12 new drugs in 2010. The most sought therapeutic area is cancer. The numbers are the highest ever in the history of domestic drug discovery initiatives triggered by companies such as Dr Reddy’s and Ranbaxy over a decade ago.
Among the pioneers, Ranbaxy had filed one IND application each in 2009 and 2008, while the last time Dr Reddy’s applied for conducting a clinical trial for new drug entity was in 2007. Of over 60 IND applications that have reached the health ministry so far (since 2000), 30 came during 2006-09. INDs are potential medicine candidates, which have never been tested elsewhere in the world.
| TESTING GROUND | |||||
| Firms | Categories | No. of IND applications | Firms | Categories | No. of IND |
| Cadila Health | Diabetes | 2 | Piramal Life | Anti-Cancer | applications |
| Hyperlipidmia | 2 | Diabetes | 4 | ||
| Anti-inflammatory | 1 | NSAID | 2 | ||
| Anti-dyslipidemia | 3 | 1 | |||
| Sun | Antispastic | 1 | Dr Reddy’s | Anti-Cancer | 3 |
| Antiallergic | 1 | Diabetes | 1 | ||
| Antiepileptic | 1 | Anti-dyslipidemia | 1 | ||
| Antihistamine | 1 | Cerebral Gliomas | 1 | ||
| Sun | Anti-Psoriasis | 2 | Torrent | Diabetic | 1 |
| Anti-TB | 1 | Obesity | 1 | ||
| Migrane | 1 | Anti-Arythmic | 1 | ||
This makes it a unique category where Indian companies are probably the only applicants, since all clinical trials, initiated by foreign global multinational firms are categorised under “global clinical trials” as these medicines are simultaneously tested in other parts of the world.
According to a senior health ministry official, the current application status indicates a trend that Indian drug firms are inching towards the global drug discovery pattern in terms of selection of therapeutic categories they choose to work on.