Nektar Therapeutics Inc., the US-based biopharmaceutical company, will expand its Indian research and development centre for which it has acquired 15 acres of land near ICICI knowledge park in Shameerpet. This would be the company's first R&D centre outside the United States.
Howard Robin, president and CEO of the company, said, the expansion is planned to accelerate the development of proprietary products as well as to use its PEGylation and Pulmonary technologies to develop truly unique mechanism for existing medicines with improved efficiency, safety, compliance and greater performance.
The centre will focus on fully integrated synthetic industry and discovery biology laboratories, besides global R&D pharmacology, biology and chemistry for innovative products.
According to Robin, they would invest of tens of millions of dollars in its research and development. The company would engage nearly 100 researchers and scientists to carry out frontline research at the upcoming centre. The company will shift from its existing centre at ICICI Knowledge Park.
The company in partnership with Pfizer has developed core technology used in Exubera which includes the formulation and particle engineering for the insulin powder. Exubera is the first approved inhaled insulin and is considered as an improved advancement in the treatment of diabetes, he said. The non-injectable insulin would be introduced in India with positive outcome in clinical trials.
It already has 11 products in the market in collaboration with drug majors like Pfizer, Roche, Baxter, Novartis and UCB Pharma. The company has a good product pipeline with 11 in different stages of clinical trials and four in pre-clinical stage. The partner product for renal anaemia and Chron's disease are under regulatory review, product for rheumatic arthritis and lung infection in CF patient is in III phase of clinical trials, anmeia, migraine, growth deficiency, cancer products are in P-II and products for osteoporosis, diabetes, Haemophilia A and B, and for infections in CF patients are under phase I and pre-clinical stage, Robin said.
Talking about the PEGylation method, Robin said, it is a technique in which non-toxic polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymers are attached to therapeutic agents and is applicable to most drug classes including proteins, peptides, antibody fragments, small molecules and other drugs. The technology is used in eight approved partnered products in the US or Europe including Roche's Pegasys for hepatitis C and Amegen's Neulasta for neutropenia.