Dr Reddy’s partners with Purdue versity

Hyderabad: Yet another feather adds in Dr Reddy’s cap. The company has signed a strategic partnership MoU with Purdue University intending to forge a strong strategic partnership in a range of research areas and novel technologies.

The agreement was signed last month between Purdue’s Executive vice-President for research, Suresh Garimella and Dr Reddy’s Executive vice-President product development, Amit Biswas. As per the statement, the agreement will enhance the Purdue Moves drug discovery initiative and to translate basic research into life-changing treatments.

So far, Dr Reddy’s offers over 200 generic versions of medicines in 26 countries around the world. The company engaged in major therapeutic areas like gastro-intestinal, cardiovascular, diabetology, oncology, pain management and anti-infectives. "Purdue has tremendous strength in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development research, but we need additional partners to help translate our discoveries through to the delivery of a medicine or technology," Garimella said.

Partnership with global pharma major to accelerate the rate at which advanced treatments make it to the millions of patients, he added. The areas of collaborative research and education include targeted drug delivery, manufacturing technology, scale-up of pharmaceutical operations, process engineering, and research and development methodologies and technology.

Besides student engagement and faculty exchanges, the agreement enables Dr Reddy’s to have a site at Purdue Research Park. Biswas said this long-term research partnership will help accelerate innovative drug development and manufacturing excellence. "We are thrilled to partner with Purdue. Together we can find innovative solutions to address unmet needs and improve the health of people all over the world," Biswas said.

"The long-term research partnership augurs well for Dr Reddy's philosophy of providing access to innovative, high-quality medicines to global patients at affordable cost," he added. The statement said that the Purdue President Mitch Daniels plans to visit India again in the fall to continue to strengthen Purdue's relationship with the country.

Close to 1,500 students from India are currently enrolled at Purdue, and thousands of Purdue alumni live in India. Purdue has several partnerships involving engineering, agriculture, business, science, technology, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, liberal arts and technology with institutions in India. The organizations include the IIT, Madras, the IIT, Hyderabad, and the ICAR.