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NATIONAL: HEALTH & MEDICAL SERVICES / DRUGS: First 4 made-in-India drugs for rare diseases launched, 4 more in pipeline, announces govt
The Union Health Ministry Friday announced that the first four made-in-India drugs for rare diseases, also called orphan diseases, which will bring down costs of the medicines by up to hundred-fold, have been launched in the country this year.
All drugs used for treating rare diseases were so far being imported and were prohibitively expensive, often forcing people to crowdfund treatment.
“As part of the National Policy on Rare Disease, an initiative in collaboration with government agencies and drugmakers had been started last year and 13 priority rare diseases, along with sickle cell anemia, had been identified for which India made drugs were to be developed,” a senior ministry official said at a press briefing.
The drugs that are being launched as part of the initiative, said the official, are going to be the “game-changer” and will bring upon a paradigm shift in the rare disease treatment landscape in the country and other low income nations.
A rare disease is a health condition of a particularly low prevalence that affects a small number of people — less than 1 per 1,000 according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) — but collectively afflicts about 6-8 percent of the population in any country at any given time.
Nearly 80 percent of these diseases are genetic in nature.
According to details shared by the health ministry, India could have a total of 8.4-19 crore rare disease cases. There are over 700 diseases categorised as rare diseases but the government says that less than 5 percent have therapies available to treat them.
“As part of the exercise”, the official said, 6 out of the 13 prioritised rare diseases were identified as “low hanging fruits” and work began last year to develop 8 drugs for them.
“Of these, four have been approved now while four more are likely to get the approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation by early next year,” he added.
In addition, for sickle cell disease — for whose elimination the Union government had launched a national programme this year — an Indian generic drugmaker, Akums pharma, has developed an oral suspension form of the drug Hydroxyurea, used in treating the condition.
“As of now, the pediatric patients of this condition mostly cannot avail treatment because the syrup Hydroxyurea is not freely available and cost of the oral suspension, when procured, can go up to Rs 70,000 per 100 ml,” the ministry official also said.
He added that the tentative cost of the locally produced drug, which is due for regulatory approval as of now, will be Rs 405 per 100 ml.
Sickle cell anemia is a common condition among the tribal population and affects the shape of red blood cells which carry oxygen to all parts of the body.
India is among the countries with one of the highest burden of the disease globally, second only to Nigeria and some tribal communities in the country report as many as 40 percent of the population affected.
Diseases and drugs
The diseases for which the generic drugs have been developed include Tyrosinemia Type 1, which is characterised by jaundice, liver failure, liver cancer. Untreated patients die by the time they are around 10 years of age.
The imported drug for the disease, Nitisinone, currently costs Rs 2.2- 6.5 crore per year depending on the body weight of the child.
The generic version of the drug launched by Laurus Labs and Zenara Pharma will bring down the cost of the drug to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.
The other disease for which indigenously developed drug is now available in the country includes Gaucher’s disease, which causes liver or spleen enlargement, bone pain or crisis and acute fatigue.
The imported drug for this ailment costs Rs 1.8-Rs 3.6 crore, but the drug launched in India by Zenara Pharma has been priced at Rs 3-6 lakh per annum.
The third disease for which the indigenous medicine will be available now is Wilson’s disease, whose symptoms include copper deposit in liver, brain, cornea, psychiatric symptoms and destruction of red blood cells. The imported version for the drug used to treat the disease costs Rs 1.8 to Rs 2.1 crore per annum but the generic versions launched by Laurus Labs and MSN Pharma will bring down the cost to Rs 2.2 lakh per annum.
Another disease for which locally produced drugs have been made available is Dravet or Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome which results in complex and difficult to treat seizures. Cannabidiol oral solution used in treating it costs Rs 6-20 lakh per annum for children weighing 5-20 kg.
But the generic drug developed by Zenara Pharma will bring down the cost to Rs 1-5 lakh every year.
The other diseases for which India made generic medicines are in the pipeline next year include Phenylketonuria — which leads to patients having small heads, mental retardation and seizures — and hyperammonemia which is a complex metabolic condition.
“Not only will these drugs bring down the cost of treatment for Indian patients but can be supplied to other countries as well,” the official quoted earlier said.
He added that pharma companies were not making drugs for these conditions earlier due to less lucrative commercial opportunities but have now come forward after the call by the government.
Last year, the government had decided to hike the monetary support offered to patients suffering from rare diseases from Rs 20 to 50 lakh, covering all conditions through the designated hospitals.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
source/content: theprint.in (headline edited)
INTERNATIONAL / NATIONAL: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: Scientist Prof Urbasi Singh, 1st Indian Scientist to get Canadian Excellence Research Chair (CERC) Award, Wins USD 8 million grant
Prof Urbasi specialises in quantum science and her research interests span cutting-edge topical areas such as quantum communication, quantum computation, quantum optics and quantum fundamentals.
Prof Urbasi Singh from the Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) laboratory at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, is the first Indian scientist to be awarded Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Photonic Quantum Science and Technologies.
She won a grant worth $8 million, opening possibilities for international interactions in academia, industry and other sectors developing lab-to-market innovative models — for building a future ecosystem based on quantum technologies.
Prof Urbasi specialises in quantum science and her research interests span cutting-edge topical areas such as quantum communication, quantum computation, quantum optics and quantum fundamentals and information processing.
Her lab is one of the first in India to manufacture and establish the usage of heralded and entangled photon sources towards various applications in quantum technologies.
source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)
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ISRO and IIT Guwahati make science breakthrough, detect emissions of black hole
The X-ray polarimetry method used by Indian scientists has opened up new dimensions to investigate and understand the nature of astrophysical black hole sources.
In a major breakthrough for space science, four researchers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) for the first time in 52 years, have detected polarized emissions from a black hole source that exists beyond our Milky Way Galaxy using a technique called X-ray polarimetry.
This feat has been achieved for the first time since the discovery in 1971 of the Large Magellanic Cloud X-3 (LMC X3) star system which is binary in nature and consists of a black hole and a ‘normal’ star that is much hotter, bigger, and more massive than the Sun.
For over half a century the star system was observed by many satellites but there has been a gap in understanding the polarization properties of X-rays emitted by highly energetic objects like stellar mass black holes in the universe. The LMC X3 is located in a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, nearly 200,000 light-years away from Earth.
The X-ray polarimetry method used by Indian scientists has opened up new dimensions to investigate and understand the nature of astrophysical black hole sources. The researchers studied LMC X-3 using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), the first mission of NASA to study the polarization of X-rays from celestial objects. They also made use of the simultaneous broad-band coverage of the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) Mission and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Mission to constrain the spin of LMC X-3.
Reflecting on the importance of this research, Professor Santabrata Das, Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati, said, “X-ray polarimetry is a unique observational technique to identify where radiation comes from near black holes. LMC X-3 emits X-rays that are 10,000 times more powerful than those from the Sun. When these X-rays interact with the material around black holes, specifically when they scatter, it changes the polarization characteristics, that is degree and angle.” He added that this helps in understanding how matter is drawn toward black holes in the presence of intense gravitational forces.”
Dr Anuj Nandi, Scientist, UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), ISRO, explained that the intense gravitational fields can cause the emitted light from black holes to become polarized. “Our observations indicate that LMC X-3 likely harbors a black hole with a low rotation rate, surrounded by a slim disc structure that gives rise to the polarized emissions,” he added.
The study was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters and was funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, India. The research team was led by Santabrata Das from IIT Guwahati and Nandi from URSC, including research scholars, Seshadri Majumder (IIT Guwahati), and Ankur Kushwaha (URSC).
source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)
Engineer turns childhood vision into Kerala’s first self-identified private hydel project
Rakesh Roy said he was able to bring the project to fruition with the support of his six other friends who graduated with him from FISAT Engineering College in Angamaly some years ago.
IDUKKI: Rakesh Roy grew up seeing a picturesque mountain stream flowing down a hill near his house at Kambilikandam in this mountainous district, but only once he became an engineer years later did he comprehend the height of that nondescript hill and realise the potential of ‘Parathodu’, the water body.
This realisation by the young engineer has made Mukkudam Small Hydroelectric Project, Kerala’s first self-identified private small hydroelectric project, a reality in Idukki.
The private hydel plant began supplying power to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) Limited late last month.
Roy said he was able to bring the project to fruition with the support of his six other friends who graduated with him from FISAT Engineering College in Angamaly some years ago.
Mukkudam is the 12th private small hydel power project in Kerala and the fifth such initiative in Idukki, Roy, who is the CMD of the company, said.
“We are proud to be the first self-identified private small hydroelectric project in the state. The uniqueness of the project is that it was identified by private persons like us in our own land,” he told PTI.
He said though there was a provision for such projects in the ‘Kerala Small Hydro Power Policy 2012’ rolled out in October 2012, he and his partners were the first to submit such a proposal to the government.
Even officials and government departments were initially apprehensive when they were approached with the project proposal as there was no precedence, he said.
When asked how he identified the power sector for their first entrepreneurial venture, he said he and his friends were aware that power was a potential area since their college days.
“Power cuts and electricity crunch had always been in the news in Kerala. So, even during our college days, we knew that it was a potential area,” he said.
After realising the potential of the mountain stream, he discussed it with his friends who offered him all support to go ahead.
Thirty-nine-year-old Roy, a native of Kambilikandam here, quit his corporate career when he decided to go ahead with the power project in 2014.
His six collegemates have been with him as pillars of support throughout these years and invested their hard-earned money in it.
They registered a company and submitted a project report to the state government for a one MW power project in December 2015.
Though they got technical sanction for the project in March 2018, a hydraulic study they conducted at the project site later revealed that it had the potential for a four MW project.
Based on a revised project report submitted to the government, approval was guaranteed for the present project in 2021.
After fighting several challenges — from funding issues and procedural delays to Covid-19 problems — the dream project was commissioned recently and it started supplying power to the KSEB since late last month.
“The gross head available for the project is 323.7 metres (1,070 feet). The length of the penstock is 1,310 metres. We have two turbine generators of 2 MW each,” Roy explained.
The generators of the small hydel projects were linked to the KSEB’s power grid on October 21.
“We expect that 11 million (1.1 crore) units of electricity can be generated annually through this power project,” he said.
Though some state-run financial institutions were approached for a loan, they were reluctant to sanction funds as they failed to understand the potential and viability of such a project, Roy said.
But, two central government agencies gave them wholehearted support which helped them make it a reality, he added.
He also particularly mentioned the support and encouragement extended by the Thiruvananthapuram-based Energy Management Centre under the Power Department, the nodal agency for Small Hydro Power Projects in the state.
Roy said Kerala has immense potential for small hydropower projects as they are environment-friendly and more viable.
Besides Roy, Unni S Sankar, Nitish S J, Renjini M, Cyriac Jose, Faris E M and Rijo Joseph are the six other partners in the project.
source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)