years, the company stopped its new
drug research in the US, merged
new drug research in India into a
subsidiary Aurigene, and subse-
quently put new drug discovery on
the backburner.
“You have to be determined
to succeed in drug discovery and
should be ready to immediately dis-
card projects when you get signals
from the lab or clinical trials that
something is going wrong,” says
Pankaj Patel of Cadila Healthcare.
Ranbaxy pursued a unique ma-
laria drug called Arterolane till
the last stage of trials, led by US-
returned drug scientists like Sudar-
shan Arora and Pradip Bhatnagar,
but its sponsor, Medicines for Ma-
laria Venture (MMV), a WHO
body, backed out in 2007. In 2010,
Ranbaxy’s new owner, Daiichi San-
kyo, merged its new drug research
with the parent R&D department.
Eventually, Ranbaxy was sold to Sun
Pharma, which focussed more on new platform tech-
nologies for specialty generics.
Similarly, Piramals formed a new drug discovery
company in 2007, Piramal Life Sciences, led by Vice
Chairperson Swati Piramal. In 2011, it was merged
with Piramal Enterprises, after the sale of its formula-
tion division. At one point, the company had over 400
scientists and succeeded in developing a biological drug
for cancer, which failed in 2012 in the second phase of
trials. Two years later, Piramal exited drug discovery
and 180-plus employees were asked to either retire or
join other group companies.
Glenmark also passionately pursued new drug re-
search, and even succeeded in out-licensing seven mol-
ecules to MNCs. But it could not take any of these to
global markets.
The biggest challenge for most drug hunters is re-
luctance of shareholders to invest in long-term drug
discovery. Pharma companies are also not able to find
alternative funding sources that will support research
for 10-15 years for no returns.
This is where Pankaj Patel’s `16,000 crore-plus
Zydus Group stands out. Like his illustrious scientist
father Ramanbhai B. Patel, who founded a research
driven drug company Cadila in 1952 with a friend In-
dravadan Modi to make vitamins, Pankaj Patel wanted
to pursue drug research. He studied pharmaceutical
science and joined Cadila in 1974, and in 1995, he in-
herited a `200 crore-business. He took the company
forward, much like others, by selling generics drugs in
India and abroad. With a 20 per cent-plus compound-CORPORATE>ZYDUS CADILAmarkets. Millions of chemical compounds have to be
screened to identify the molecule and the product can
fail at any stage of development. Historically, eight of 10
promising molecules that reach clinical trial stage fail.
Adverse events after marketing can also result in the
drug being withdrawn.
In 1997, scientists at Dr Reddy’s Laboratories in
Hyderabad discovered a molecule to treat Type-2 dia-
betes. They named it Ba laglitazone. Dr R eddy ’s for med
a drug research company, Perlecan Pharma, with
funding from ICICI Venture and a couple of PEs, and
licensed two diabetics molecules under development
to pharma MNC Novo Nordisk for pursuing clinical
trials. Dr Anji Reddy, a drug discovery scientist, was
heartbroken when he learnt a few years later that rats
had died in the lab and Novo was going to discontinue
the trials in the third and final phase. Within a few
62 IBUSINESS TODAYIAugust 11 I 2019“Despite challenges we are
sure to grow at over
10 -12% in the coming years
with specialty and new
biologic launches”
SHARVIL PATEL, Managing Director, Zydus Cadila;
and Chairman, Zydus Wellness