Dr. Ramesh Panchagnula Honored by Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), Ranbaxy Science Foundation (RSF)

October 20, 2004

SAC Member Wins Prestigious Award

Dr. Ramesh Panchagnula, Ph.D., member of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development's Scientific Advisory Committee and director of pharmaceutics research at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), has been honored by both the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) and the Ranbaxy Science Foundation for his innovative work in the field of pharmaceutical sciences around anti-TB drug research. Dr. Panchagnula will receive the OPPI 2004 Scientist Award on September 25 in Mumbai, India and the 2004 Ranbaxy Research Award from the President of India in a ceremony on October 8.

An adviser to India’s dynamic pharmaceutical sector and the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Panchagnula is a principal investigator at NIPER, one of two bioavailability centers approved by WHO. In addition to his work on testing fixed dose combinations (FDC) of TB drugs, Dr. Panchagnula and his colleagues have formulated the concept of “High Throughput Pharmaceutics (HTP)” by identifying basic pharmaceutical properties of new anti-TB drugs. By retrofitting these principals into molecular modeling, combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening, the paradigm aims to reduce the lead time and failure rates, as well as decrease the cost of new drug discovery and development. It is for this cutting-edge work in addition to his evaluation research in new anti-TB drugs that Dr. Panchagnula was cited by the OPPI for its annual “Scientist Award” and honored last year by RSF with its annual Research Award for work in pharmaceutical sciences.

Dr. Panchagnula is an advisor to the TB Alliance on the development of PA-824, a nitroimidazole derivative and leading anti-TB drug candidate being developed by the TB Alliance and poised for clinical trials in 2005. Dr. Panchagnula is providing expert guidance and designing studies to assess key physicochemical properties critical for synthesis and formulation development efforts.

About the TB Alliance Scientific Advisory Committee: The TB Alliance Scientific Advisory Committee was established to assist in evaluating proposals and projects under consideration for investment as part of its TB drugs portfolio. The Scientific Advisory Committee provides technical expertise on drug research, development, manufacturing, and distribution, as well as other medical and scientific issues.

Ranbaxy Science Foundation (formerly Ranbaxy Research Foundation), sponsor of the Ranbaxy Research Award, was originally incoporated by Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited with the mission of giving impetus to research activity and help in reviving India's great scientific tradition. Ranbaxy Laboratories is India’s largest pharmaceutical company and manufactures and markets generics, branded generic pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. OPPI represents the pharmaceutical manufacturers in India, consists of companies with international collaboration and large Indian companies and primarily represents leading Indian-based research companies.