Panacea Biotec inks MoU with Panjab University to develop NCE

New Delhi, Oct 10 (UNI) Panacea Biotec Ltd today said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Panjab University for a drug discovery project.

''The worldwide market for Psychiatric drugs exceeds 13 billion dollars and there is a continuous need to bring better drug molecules to minimise the morbidity of patients requiring such treatment. We are sure, with this collaboration, Panacea Biotec would emerge as a major player in this segment, company's Joint Managing Director Rajesh Jain said.

Under the agreement, Panacea Biotec's Drug Discovery Research and Development (R&D) centre ''Laksh'' located at Mohali in Punjab and Panjab University will collaborate to identify lead molecules with an aim to bring a new chemical entity (NCE) superior to existing marketed products in the therapeutic area of psychiatric disorders.

The university would transfer chemical and biological information on molecules to Panacea Biotec to develop them as NCEs. Panacea Biotec will undertake their pre-clinical and clinical development leading to their launch worldwide.

The MoU was signed between Mr Rajesh Jain, Joint Managing Director of Panacea Biotec and Professor (Emeritus) S V Kessar and Prof S K Kulkarni of Panjab University, in the presence of Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University.

UNI