‘More physicians, doctors should be involved in drug development’

Hyderabad: Following the curtain-raiser of CSIR-IICT Platinum Jubilee celebrations by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, a three-day international conference on sustainable chemistry on health, environment and materials (Su-Chem 2018) commenced in IICT on Monday. Prof T Ramasami, former IICT Director and Secretary DST, emphasised on the requirement of a ‘solution’ – driven drug discovery and development, with more involvement of physicians and doctors for an efficient healthcare delivery.

He noted that since 2004 the country had observed a sea change with involvement of private sector as major investor in healthcare R&D. Although the country was spending approximately US $ 330,000 per scientist due to high population ‘we require more scientists to cater the need of the people’.  Prof. G Mugesh from IISc, Bengaluru, shared with the audience the effects of imbalance of T3/T4 thyroid hormonal levels on human health. 

Dr. PV Srinivas, Head API, R&D, Cipla Pharmaceuticals Ltd, illustrated the importance of flow chemistry in synthesis protocols over batch or traditional process. 
Prof. Scott A Snyder, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, emphasised on the newer strategies and tactics for the rapid synthesis of complex natural products, while Prof.  David Yu-Kai Chen, from Seoul National University, Korea, shared the recent advances in target-oriented organic synthesis. 

Dr. Ajaya Ghosh, Director, CSIR-NIIST, shared the innovation of self-assembly of organic molecules to generate super hydrophobic coatings that can improve buoyancy of marine vessels leading to larger amounts of fuel savings. Dr. Ajit Sapre of Reliance Industries Ltd, Mumbai, explained their new venture in developing bio-fuel from algal sources. Prof. Neil Robertson of University of Edinburugh, UK, explained how modified titanium oxide materials were effective and cheap for photo-catalytic water purification. The session concluded with lecture of National Research Professor Padma Vibhushan RA Mashelkar, on “Dismantling inequality through assured innovation”.