Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL) has entered into research collaboration’ with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) to identify potential new targets for developing drugs to treat fungal infections.

Dr Parag Sadhale of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology at the Indian Institute of Science will spearhead the collaborative effort. Dr Sadhale’s expertise in identifying new genes which are expressed only in agents that cause fungal infection is likely to provide new drug targets for developing anti-fungal molecules, the company statement said.

Nicholas Piramal would have exclusive rights to commercialise any products coming out of this collaboration. NPIL already has a vast collection of natural products (over 6, 000 plant extracts and 18. 000 microbial strains), which will also be evaluated during this period.

Appoints New Head for Formulations Research

In an effort to strengthen their position in the R&D space, NPIL has appointed Dr Maneesh Nerurkar, a Ph D in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in charge of Formulations group, including the New Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) Division.

Dr Swati Piramal, director, Strategic Alliances & Communication, said, “We aim to be an integrated pharmaceutical company with a commitment to discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of indigenous pharmaceutical products. With this target in mind, the company places a premium on promoting new concepts and individual inspiration from all sources - external and internal”.