Institute of Nuclear Medicines and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a premier life sciences laboratory under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is looking for industry partners for further streamlining of 30 drugs and health products that it has developed.

The institute, primarily engaged in the development of formulations, health products and devices for the defence forces, said it has developed 30 novel products that are based on novel concepts in the areas of nano-inhalation technology, sublingual injections, treatment of microvasculopathy, gastroenteropathy and emergency medication.

Sources said several of these drugs, some of them listed for trials and others ready for human trials, have life saving potential. The institute is now seeking joint development partners for scaling up and fine-tuning these to the user requirement and to supply to the defence sector on need basis.

The institute also has invited pharma and health care units to come up with biomedical products that may be useful in augmenting efficiency and health of the defence forces. By conducting requisites safety and efficacy tests, including human trials with participation of the users themselves, the institute may act as an interface between the developer and the defence sector users by value adding to the technology and passing the benefits to the sector.

The products included a number of new radiopharmaceuticals specially targeting cancerous lesions. The new radiopharmaceuticals have the twin potential for either imaging or therapy of the cancerous lesions using conventional nuclear medicine radionuclides. The radiopharmaceuticals targeting primary lesions are usually based on antibodies or receptors, while those targeting bone secondary are phosphonate derivatives with affinity towards abnormal bone.

Apart from these new radiopharmaceuticals targeting cancer in vivo, DRDO has evolved certain techniques for accurate diagnosis of brain cancer recurrence in post-operative patients. Recurrence of such tumours is difficult to differentiate from normal post-operative fibrosis on conventional imaging.

DRDO has formulated certain nuclear medicine and MR spectroscopy protocols to diagnose these difficult cases in a cost-effective way. A databank of more than 60 cases suggests sensitivity of detection of more than 90 per cent. In the oncology related area also, the 2-deoxy D-Glucose is another product in advanced stage.