Under the collaboration GVK will provide clinical support, logistics, monitoring and project management for trials PDP, a group not-for-profit entities part funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, is conducting in India and Bangladesh.
Illnesses on PDP’s target list include tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, pneumonia and diarrhoea which, despite affecting millions of people, are often overlooked by drug companies in favour of conditions that can generate higher revenues.
In return for its research efforts Hyderabad-headquartered GVK will receive a fee but only at a concessional rate according to senior vice president of clinical development Shoibal Mukherjee
Dr Mukherjee told Outsoucing-pharma.com that the contract research organisation (CRO) has considerable experience conducting clinical research in this field, which will be important to the success of the project.
“GVK Biosciences has been working in the area of neglected diseases for several years, and it is this experience that puts the company in a position to participate in the Global Health Product Development Partners Consortium.
Mukherjee explained that GVK has been involved in the management and monitoring of six clinical trials with roughly a third of its clinical research workforce directly or indirectly associated with these projects.
He added that, although the work is progressing “clinical development of medicines is a lengthy and arduous process. It is typically 2 to 6 years before drugs in clinical trials become marketable and sometimes it is longer.