Piramal to raise R&D spend to Rs 200 cr for cancer drug trials

Drugmaker Piramal Healthcare’s research and development (R&D) spend will significantly rise this fiscal year as it looks to initiate the second phase of clinical trials for at least two oncology molecules, its head of research said.

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The drugmaker, which spent about Rs 121 crore on R&D in nine months to December last year, will see expenditure jumping to Rs 200 crore in FY 2012/13, Somesh Sharma, told Reuters in a telephone interview late on Monday.

Piramal Healthcare has completed the phase-I trials for its tumour suppressor molecule P1446A-05, while its blood cancer treatment molecule P2745 is in the last stages of first phase trials.

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“We expect the phase-II trials to begin in another 3 to 6 months for P1446A-05,” he said. “The phase-I trials (for P2745) will end late this year or early next year.”

The company, which sold its formulations business to US-based Abbott Laboratories for $3.72 billion in 2010, is presenting the trials’ results for three of its oncology molecules at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Chicago that ends Wednesday.

The third molecule P7170, to be used as an anti-tumour chemical, is expected to undergo phase-I trials in India beginning June, he said.

In 2011, Piramal Healthcare merged the drug research division of group firm Piramal Life Sciences with self, to provide robust financial support for the R&D activities.

Piramal Healthcare sees a timeline of three to four years for the first two molecules to get commercialised, Sharma said.

The blood cancer molecule P2745 is to be used in patients that develop resistance for Gleevec, a drug sold by Novartis.

“The market size for Gleevec is about $3.6 billion and say 15 percent patients treated by Gleevec develop resistance,” he said, suggesting a global market size of $400-$500 million for Piramal’s new molecule.

The estimated market size for P1446A-05 would be anywhere between $100 million - $200 million in India in the first year, he said.

The drugmaker plans to commercialise its oncology drugs on its own instead of partnering with a multi-national company, he said.

“For oncology molecules, where you do not require very large clinical studies… our goal is to develop and sell it world wide,” he said.

“There are a limited number of oncology centres in the world, therefore we will not require a large marketing force either.”

Reuters