CDRI develops new cholesterol lowering drug

Lucknow, Nov 9: Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), a premier CSIR laboratory of the country, has signed a licence agreement with Indian Pharma multi-national Cadilla for its new cholesterol-lowering drug developed by its scientists, described as a breakthrough research drug.

The drug compound is a result of eight years of research by CDRI scientists.

The CDRI has already patented the chemically-sythesised drug compound and has entered into an agreement with the pharma major.

''Cadilla will market the medicine once the trials are completed and the final approval of Drug Controler of India (DCI) is obtained,''CDRI Director Dr C M Gupta, told sources here.

Its multi-centric clinical trials, conducted at King George Medical University, Lucknow, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI), Lucknow, KEM hospital, Mumbai and PGI, Chandigarh, are in the final stage and the new medicine is likley to hit chemist shops in a year's time.

Some more centres including AIIMS, New Delhi are likley to taken up for clinical trials, he said claiming the trails were being conducted only in those hospitals which conform to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) norms.

Dr Gupta claimed the new drug would be pathbreaking in the sense the cholesterol-lowering drugs available in the market had many side effects. But the new drug would be free of any ill effects. ''Some of the popular drugs which contain 'tatrins' and 'fibrates' group of compounds may cause serious side effects -- even muscular dystrophy in some cases,'' he claimed.

The cholesterol and triglycerides cause inner coating on the walls of arteries which may lead to angina and heart attacks. The erratic life style and inconsistent food habits often result in the cholesterol increasing effect on the body and its prevalance was very common in the present generation.

UNI