On June 2nd, AstraZeneca opened a new multi-million dollar research facility in Bangalore, India to focus principally on finding new treatments for tuberculosis (TB), a disease affecting two million people every year in India and in more than eight million people worldwide.
Sir Tom McKillop, Chief Executive, AstraZeneca PLC, highlighted AstraZeneca's unique commitment to India, saying:
"AstraZeneca Discovery Bangalore has been set the challenge of finding the world's first new TB drug since 1964. AstraZeneca will make any TB medicines discovered in these laboratories available for clinical development and supply to the world's poorest countries at low prices, in partnership with governments, healthcare systems, international agencies and others. All countries must play their part in the treatment of TB and I hope that the G8 Ministers, who will meet this week, will agree an international step-change in the allocation of resources for the treatment of this devastating disease."
"The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development extends its congratulations to AstraZeneca on this important occasion," said Maria C. Freire, Ph.D., CEO of the TB Alliance, in a prepared statement delivered at the opening. "We join you in spirit, and are honored to be working side by side with you in seeking more effective treatments for tuberculosis."
"Through this facility, you have reaffirmed your commitment to conquering a global disease that has defied humankind's best scientific efforts for decades. The work that you do here will resonate everywhere in the world by giving hope to the millions afflicted by TB."
AstraZeneca previously announced an investment programme for the drug discovery centre in Bangalore, which included $10 million to create the new research laboratories. Now that the centre has been created, AstraZeneca is investing another $30 million over the next five years for laboratory equipment and operations costs. The discovery centre in Bangalore, with more than 100 scientists, works closely with AstraZeneca's global network of research and development (R&D) centres, especially the genomics and infection research centres in Boston, USA, and in Cheshire, UK.
The AstraZeneca research program in Bangalore is utilizing the latest technologies in drug discovery and development to find new candidate drugs that are better than existing treatments, active with shorter duration of therapy, and active against latent disease and resistance organisms. Developments in molecular science have revolutionized anti-infective drug hunting, in particular the ability to analyze and investigate the entire genome, such as the pathogen Mycobacteriun tuberculosis, which causes TB. This has enabled scientists to initiate novel approaches to treatment. In the past, TB research has been limited and treatment has relied on use of drugs developed for other infections. The promise for the future is for specific selective therapies, which could be "tailor-made" to address the challenges of a potential TB epidemic in the twenty-first century.