Hyderabad company teams up with IICT to develop drugs against COVID-19

Hyderabad-based LAXAI LifeSciences is working with IICT for synthesis of drugs being used in the fight against the coronavirus. LAXAI MD Vamshi Maddhipatla said that this will reduce India's dependency on China for such raw materials.

Hyderabad (Telangana): The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, is collaborating with another Hyderabad-based LAXAI LifeSciences to jointly develop and manufacture Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Intermediates to reduce the dependency of Indian Pharma sector on Chinese imports.

"Our collaboration with IICT Hyderabad is to develop three possible molecules, which could potentially fight COVID-19. There are a lot of clinical trials that are going on, the outcome of which can identify 1-2 drugs which can be helpful in fighting COVID-19," LAXAI Managing Director Vamshi Maddhipatla said.

India, one of the largest producers of anti-malarial drug HCQ, has seen a spurt in demand in the recent weeks and exported the medicine to over 50 countries, including the USA during the last few days.

The collaboration will result in a cost-effective process with minimal dependency on China for key raw materials.

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"We are working on developing indigenous technology so that we don't depend on intermediates or raw materials from China. This will be very critical for India's national drug security and to also supply to the rest of the world," Maddhipatla said.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed the disproportionate reliance of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry, the third largest in the world by the volume of drugs produced, on the Chinese raw materials, an official release said.

(With inputs from PTI)