Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and TNO Quality of Life of the Netherlands signed a strategic agreement to join forces in developing new products to combat the worldwide growth of obesity and related disorders. In this joint effort, longstanding knowledge from traditional Indian medicine and state-of-the-art genomic research will be integrated into a strategic Collaboration aimed at finding new plant-derived bioactives that manage and counteract development of overweight and associated later-stage disease development, stated a Avestahgen release.

The agreement was signed by Avesthagen's CEO and Founder, Dr. Villoo
Morawala-Patell, and Dr. Kees Ekkers, managing director of TNO Quality of Life. It was counter-signed as witness by the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and deputy prime minister, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, who is heading the Dutch Business Delegation.

In the envisaged collaboration, both parties intend to combine the best of two worlds, harnessing a wealth of knowledge from India's rich history in traditional plant-based medicine by using the best models available and modern genomics-based research to unravel complex molecular networks in the human body. The collaboration therefore is expected to yield new understanding in managing metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity and cardio-vascular diseases threatening many societies, by developing new dietary solutions at an early stage.

Dr. Morawala-Patell said, "TNO has developed several very important human disease models in animals. They also have a unique dynamic model for kinetic studies in digestive physiology and a strong expertise in nutrigenomics research, which is also expressed by TNO 's coordinating role in the multimillion Euro EU project on Human Nutrigenomics. Presently, India has approximately 30 million people suffering from diabetes. WHO predicts that the figure will touch 40 million in 2010. That is a large section of our population. Together we hope to address this problem."