Johnson and Johnson working with Centre on tuberculosis treatment

Hyderabad: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) on Tuesday said it’s working with the Centre on developing a molecule on treatment for tuberculosis (TB). The result from study on HIV vaccine is expected by 2020, according to Paul Stoffels, Worldwide Chairman Pharmaceuticals and Chief Scientific Officer at Johnson & Johnson. Stoffels sees research potential in Indian biotech sector as costs on clinical trials are 5-10 percent less than that in the US.

“We’re in association with Indian government working on developing a molecule. So, It’s Bedaquiline (drug), which is the first new molecule in last forty years developed for TB. It is a very effective drug for multi-drug therapy. We’re working with the Indian government to bring it to the people,” Stoffels told the media on the sidelines of BioAsia-2017 here. It may be recalled that Telangana government last year entered into an MoU with J&J to make it a tuberculosis-free state.

Stoffels further said that J&J was working on a vaccine for HIV and the outcome is expected in the next three years. “Coming to HIV vaccine, the study is taking place this year and the results will be known by 2020,” he said, while appreciating the strength of Indian pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms in developing new molecules. Stoffels in his address at BioAsia-2017, said there were 140 molecules in different stages of development. J&J has incubators for startups in the US and Canada and will expand globally.

Stoffels, who received the excellence award at BioAsia-2107 on Monday, further highlighted the importance of utilization of funds. “Efficient use of funds and return on investments in R&D crucial for the biotechnology segment,” he said. Global pharma CEOs see challenges on financial aspects in the biotech segment. Return on investment and utilization of funds are equally important, said Dr Vas Narasimhan, global head (drug development ) at Novartis, Switzerland.

Dr Narasimhan further said: “The global pharmaceutical and biotech industry has almost a $150 bn in R&D and the question is that efficient use of funds or returns for our investors. We have a chemical library on our campus with about 2-3 million chemical molecules that we screen to see if there is a drug.”

Nobel Laureate Prof Kurt Wuthrich, Scripps Research Institute, US, said: “Each successful drug development today starts , there is a discovery or an invention and then goes through many years of development creating a market and getting the drug to be actually used by the ethical community. I lived through this myself, I have seen that it took two generations of medical doctors to adopt MRI and use it where it is more apt to provide information needed.”