Two Indian made anti-viral drugs to treat diseases caused by Human Herpes Virus – type one, type two (HHV 1&2) and Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) will be ready for use by the end of 2014.
Ninety per cent of the researches on drug development has been completed and the clinical trials will be over in next two years, said Dr Rajarajan, the scientist and research head of the centrally sponsored research project on anti-viral drugs being carried out at the Bio Informatics Infrastructure Facility Centre of the Department of Biotechnology at Presidency College in Chennai.
The pre-clinical trials, in-vitro and in-vivo, on the drugs are already over. The in-vitro test was done at the Presidency College and in-vivo was carried out at the Tamil Nadu veterinary university. Within two months’ time all the studies on the project will be completed and a period of three years has been taken to reach the present level. The clinical studies are conducted at a drug manufacturing company based in Chennai, for which an agreement was made between the firm and the presidency college.
He said, in the initial stage of the project the virus was named Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) and a change in the nomenclature has happened recently.
To develop and transfer the technology, government of India has funded for the project through the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the ministry of science and technology. The co-associating institute involved in the research project is the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) in Jammu. Their role was to separate the molecules from potential antiviral plants, Dr Rajarajan said in an interview with Pharmabiz.
“We are excepting two new drugs from this ongoing research to treat three diseases. Human Herpes Virus – type one causes herpes labialis (mouth ulcer). It also causes herpes keratitis (infection around the eye). HHV- Type 2 causes herpes genitilis (infection on genital organs among men and women).Thirdly, Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) which was identified by researchers that it was behind the disease chicken pox in children and herpes zoster in adults,” explained the scientist.
According to him these three viruses are closely related and to contain the diseases caused by them, Acyclovir is the commonly prescribed drug. But our country needs superior drugs though cost becomes burdensome.
The two new drugs will be quite indigenous and Aravind Remedies in Chennai is the manufacturing company agreed to conduct the clinical studies. The drugs will be available for topical application (ointment) and for systemic application (capsule/tablets).
The pattern of the research was to identify seven plants first and out of which eight molecules were isolated which were taken for the development of drugs. The technology developed by the institute will be transferred to Aravind Remedies for production of drugs.
Dr Rajarajan said this is the first government funded anti-viral research project on HHV-1, 2 & 3. The total expenditure for the project comes around Rs.2 crore. Thirty per cent of the recurring expenditure is met by Aravind Remedies, he said and added that this is the first breakthrough in anti-viral development for the treatment of chickenpox and related diseases.