Another prestigious award for Shanferon

The award was prsented by the minister of state for science & technology, B S Rawat, to Varaprasad Reddy, the managing director of Shantha, at a glittering ceremony held at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi today . Shanferon is the ONLY Interferon to be developed, manufactured and marketed by an Indian biotech company.

This is the second DSIR award bagged by Shantha for its second recombinant product. Earlier it had won the DSIR National Award for Shanvac-B, a recombinant DNA Hepatitis-B vaccine.

Shantha has claimed to have launched these human recombinant products of international quality at affordable prices in the country.

Launched in April 2002, Shanferon is the only Interferon Alpha 2b in the world to be cloned and expressed in Pichia pastoris, a eukaryotic new generation host, having immense advantages over prokaryotic E. coli host.

This technology has resulted in a cost-effective product that is very safe and has a lower side effects profile compared to other interferons in the market. Giving stiff competition to MNC brands, Shanta garnered 20 marketshare in a Rs 30 crore interferon market in the first of product launches.

The company stated that it was now now poised to obtain a process patent for the technology in several countries including US and Europe as its international application for a patent had been published by Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2001.

Shantha recently launched its 3rd recombinant product - Shankinase - which is a clot-buster, streptokinase, used in acute myocardial infarction Shantha has been pioneering r-DNA technology based products in India with its strong R&D focus since 1993.

Speaking at the function, Varaprasad Reddy said that: "Shantha has achieved success, overcoming many hurdles like disruption of efficacy trials of Shanferon on monkeys by animal activists in 1999, which delayed the process of introducing the drug interferon alpha 2b in the Indian market by 1 ½ years. This has really denied the poor people the chance use the cost-effective drug. We have fought single-handedly to launch world-class products that are only now being recognized by way of National Awards, but the environment should help and foster companies like Shantha to grow and achieve much more."