CognitrexCancerDigest

South Asia's first proton therapy centre was launched in Chennai on Friday. Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, equipped with the path-breaking pencil beam technology, offers hope to cancer patients from India and abroad. The centre was inaugurated by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in the presence Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Apollo Hospitals Group chairman Dr Prathap C. Reddy. Speaking on the occasion, Naidu said, ''Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and is a major cause of mortality in India. Proton therapy, which is a pioneering treatment, has marked a new milestone in the medical journey of our country.'' ''It is pertinent to note that even a first world country like the UK launched a Proton Beam centre just last month, in December 2018, making our achievement in bringing this best and latest medical technology to India truly praiseworthy,'' said Reddy. ''It is with a sense of pride that we dedicate the Apollo ...

Drug maker Lupin is in the process of developing a pipeline of products under its new drug discovery programme to treat various diseases like cancer and metabolic disorders, a top company official said.  The company, which last month inked a partnership with global pharma company AbbVie for the development and commercialisation of its novel oncology drug to treat hematological cancers, is focussing on first-to-market kind of opportunities with its new products.  "The Novel Drug Discovery and Development (NDDD) is focused and committed on developing a pipeline of highly differentiated and innovative new chemical entities in various therapeutic areas like oncology, immunology and metabolic disorders," Lupin President NDDD Raj Kamboj told PTI.  When asked about company’s ambitions from the programme over the next two-three years, he said, "Lupin will focus NDDD activities to advance pipeline programs where there are first-to-market and/or best-in-class opportunities. Em...

Aurobindo Pharma is focussing on building a diverse speciality portfolio of nearly 150 products with an addressable market size of USD 118.2 billion in the next three financial years, the drug firm said in an investor presentation on Monday. The speciality portfolio will be in various therapeutic segments such as oncology and hormones, biologics, topicals, nasals, peptides, depot injection, inhalers, vaccines and transdermal patches totalling 147 products under development. In a regulatory filing to BSE, the company said 79 products are under development in oncology and hormones, 22 are in topicals, 5 are in nasals, 14 are in peptides and 4 in depot injection segment. The other products under development are 8 in transdermal patches, 8 in inhalers, 6 in biologics and one in vaccines, it added. While largest addressable market size is USD 45 billion for oncology and hormones segment, it is USD 35 billion for biologics and USD 12.2 billion for peptides segment, the presentation sai...

According to the data by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India is projected to have 17.3 lakh new cases of cancer by 2020 and over 8.8 lakh patients are expected to die from the disease. Breast cancer which has the highest incidence of all cancers in females has also become frequent in a population younger than 50 years. At times, breast/ovarian cancer occur due to inherited genetic mutations (this is called Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer syndrome). A symposium was organized at Hotel Park Ascent in Noida by Strand Life Sciences to bring together domain experts from gynaecology and IVF to discuss this trend of higher incidence of breast and ovarian cancer and associated screening for early diagnosis. Dr. Ramesh Hariharan, CEO of Strand Life Sciences, was present at this occasion and shared Strand's capabilities as a diagnostic lab to screen such cancers. With the acquisition of Quest Diagnostics' India business, Strand is now better placed to cater to the N...

Pharma major Lupin Limited (Lupin) and global biopharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc., today announced that AbbVie has licensed Lupin’s MALT1 (Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma Translocation Protein 1) inhibitor program. Through this partnership, AbbVie gains exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize Lupin’s MALT1 inhibitors. MALT-1 is a protein involved in T-cell and B-cell lymphocyte activation and AbbVie intends to pursue development across a range of hematological cancers, many with limited current treatment options. Commenting on the development, Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin Limited said, “Delivering on new drugs was a key element of Dr. Deshbandhu Gupta’s vision. We are extremely proud of being able to realize his vision to bring new treatments to patients in need. We are very pleased to partner with AbbVie who share a commitment to deliver high quality medicines in areas that lack approved treatment and have a dire medical need. Their proven succes...

Persistent infection with high-risk HPV has been established to be the principal cause of cervical cancer in women, with HPV implicated in greater than 99 per cent of cervical cancers worldwide. It can take 10 to 15 years or longer for cervical cancer to develop so regular screening to know a woman’s individual risk and finding disease early, before cancer develops, is an important prevention strategy. The molecular lab launch event which discussed at length the need for screening of cervical cancer saw the presence of dignitaries namely Dr J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr V Shanta, Chairperson, Cancer Institute (WIA), Mr S N Pandey, Managing Director, Chennai Petroleum Corporation and Dr Shravan Subramanyam, Managing Director, Roche Diagnostics India. India accounts for 20 per cent of world-wide prevalence for cervical cancer, and has an incidence and mortality rate higher than most regions, including South East A...

MELBOURNE, Australia  (OTCQB: PPCB) (“Propanc”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on development of new and proprietary treatments for cancer patients suffering from solid tumors such as pancreatic, ovarian and colorectal cancers, today announced that Propanc’s foundation patent application has been granted by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trademarks, India. The foundation patent, which covers the Company’s lead product candidate, PRP, pioneers the discovery of a pharmaceutical composition for treating cancer via a combination of trypsinogen and/or chymotrypsinogen pancreatic proenzymes. A report by PWC looking at prospects for growth, predicts that the Indian Pharmaceutical market will reach $50 Billion and become one of the sector’s top 10 markets in the world by 2020. So far, the foundation patent has been granted in the USA, Europe (including Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, ...