Developing drugs in India, for the world

It is estimated that in 2019, 4.95 million deaths were associated with resistant bacterial infections. This number will continue to rise unless new antibiotics are developed. Despite the well-defined unmet need, the pharmaceutical industry’s interest in developing antibiotics is poor; new drugs must be kept in reserve for the critically ill, limiting the return on investment. Thus, the onus of developing new antibiotics has shifted to small companies and startups. Unfortunately, their efforts are not going to be enough to avert the burgeoning public health crisis. Publicly funded institutions urgently need to fill the gaps in the research and development pipeline.  Using an array of novel approaches, direct and unconventional antibacterial therapies can be developed efficiently. I will draw on my experiences from the public and private sectors to make the case that drugs to combat antimicrobial resistance can be made in India, for the world.

Profile 
Dr. Radha Rangarajan has been involved in translational research and product development for the last two decades. She is currently Director, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute. Dr. Rangarajan worked in the Drug Discovery division of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories between 2003 and 2009. Thereafter, she co-founded Vitas Pharma, a drug discovery and development company focused on novel therapies for resistant infections. In 2020, she became Chief Technology Officer at HealthCubed, a medical devices company addressing the need for affordable diagnostics. Dr Rangarajan received the “Biotech Startup of the year” award for HealthCubed at the Bengaluru Tech Summit (2021), the FICCI Award of Excellence for Women in R&D (2019), and the Discovery Award from the Longitude Prize Committee, UK (2016). Dr. Rangarajan obtained her B.S. degree in Biology from Stanford University and Ph.D. from Rockefeller University.  She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.