Shasun Chemicals & Drugs Ltd., a leading Indian CRAMS and API exporting pharmaceutical company, today announced that it is making a foray into Biotherapeutics by launching Streptokinase in the Indian Market.
Streptokinase is an effective and inexpensive clot dissolving drug used in the treatment of myocardial infarction and pulmonary embolism and belongs to the category of fibrinolytics/clot busters which work by activating plasminogen to produce plasmin which in turn helps in dissolving the clot.
The technology for the synthesis of this therapeutic protein was developed at Institute of Microbial technology (IMTech) by Dr. Girish Sahni, Director IMTech and his team. IMTech is a premier institute working on the frontiers of Science and Technology under the auspices of the Council of Scientific and Industrial research (CSIR), Government of India.
The technology was subsequently licensed to Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Ltd. (Shasun) in the year 2002 and Shasun had undertaken enormous amounts of work to effect the transition of this technology from the labs in IMTech to the commercial market place.
IMtech guided Shasun on the nuances of the technology and played a pivotal role in the development of this drug. This development represents and endorses the importance of Public/Private partnerships to produce affordable medicines.
Speaking on this development Mr. N Govindrajan, CEO & MD, Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Ltd said “We have worked closely with the Institute of Microbial technology since 2002 to get this technology commercialized and we are happy to announce today, that this launch of Streptokinase demonstrates the potential of public-private partnerships to develop economically viable treatment alternatives”.
“This medicine will provide immense benefit to the Indian population. Young patients with fewer clots can be treated. It will reduce mortality among patients, increase lifespan of the younger lot & the thrombolytic patients can avoid surgery and huge expenses now.” he further added.
Over the last decade, treatment mechanism for patients with AMI (Acute Myocardial Infarction) has been by intravenous thrombolysis using Streptokinase. This mode of treatment makes it highly critical for the medicine to be of absolutely best purity. Shasun’s Streptokinase being a recombinant protein will have not any traces of Streptolysin or Streptodornase (which are usually harmful) associated with natural streptokinase. Further studies in the lab have also demonstrated that Shasun’s Streptokinase has one of the best fibrinolytic activities amongst the products currently available in the market.
About Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Ltd (BSE: 524552, NSE: SHASUNCHEM)
Shasun Chemicals and Drugs Ltd is leading pharma company focused on manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API’s), intermediates and finished dosages to global pharma majors. Founded in 1976, Shasun offers an integrated business model by offering services in research, development and manufacturing (including Contract Research and Manufacturing Services).The company has four bulk manufacturing facilities, two in India and two in UK, which have been inspected successfully several times by various regulatory agencies including US FDA. Its finished dosage facility has been inspected by US FDA, TPD Canada and MHRA, UK. With its maiden acquisition of business and assets of UK-based Rhodia Pharma through the wholly owned subsidiary Shasun Pharma Solutions Ltd (SPSL), Shasun has now become a multi national company.
