Panacea Biotec adds another feather to its cap
Indigenously developed PacliALL grabbed Best Product of the Year
Award
Reaffirming its mission – “Innovation in Support of Life”, PacliALL – an
indigenously developed Albumin bound Paclitaxel Particles formulation by
Panacea Biotec has won the prestigious BioSpectrum Product of the year
Award 2011 at Bangalore on 16 December 2011.
The award was received by Dr. Rajesh Jain, Joint Managing Director from Mr. Abraham
Mathew Chief Editor of BioSpectrum during the 9th BioSpectrum Award ceremony held at
Bangalore recently, which was attended by the crème de la crème of Indian biotech industry
Caption – Dr. Rajesh Jain, JMD,
Panacea Biotec Ltd receiving the
“Best Product of the Year Award -
2011” from Mr. Abraha m Mathew
Chief Editor, BioSpectrum at 9
BioSpectrum Awards at
Bangalore.
(L-R) – Mr. Sarabjit Singh, VP,
Pharmaceutical Resea rch, PBL,
Mrs. Meena Jain, Dr. Rajesh Jain,
JMD, Panacea Biotec Ltd, Mr.
Abraham Mathew, Chief Editor,
BioSpectrum, Dr. Naveen Jain,
GM, Biology Research, PBL and
Dr. Mahalaxmi Andheria, VP, IPR,
PBL
Dr. Rajesh Jain, Joint Managing Director, Panacea Biotec Ltd said “There couldn’t be any
other way to say good bye to yea r 2011. We are delighted to receive such a prestigious
award. This award is a reflection and recognition of the hard work put in by our employees
particularly the R&D Team at GRAND, without their dedication this honour would not have
been possible.”
The indigenously developed PacliALL from
Panacea Biotec is a formulation of
albumin-bound Paclitaxel particles. The
product is more affordable than the
innovator and safer than the conventional
formulations of Paclitaxel as a
chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment
of breast cancer
PacliALL was launched by Panacea Biotec on Feb 12, 2011 at the Indian Cancer Congress at
Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. The indigenously developed PacliALL uses one of the world's
most advanced particle size optimization technology to reduce serious adverse effects,
including severe anaphylaxis and sensory neuropathy associated with conventional Paclitaxel
formulations. This product also offers several patient convenience aspects like short er
infusion time and elimination of the need for premedication. The product is available at a
price that is approximately 50 percent less than the imported one in domestic and global
markets.
The uniqueness of PacliALL is that it is three times more efficacious than conventional,
solvent based, Pa clitaxel, in terms of response rate. It is free from the undesirable side
effects of chremophore like anaphylaxis shock/skin reaction and higher grade of neutropenia
among others. Also, the patients need not to be treated with pre-medication, containing
steroids. Drug related neuropathy is reversible unlike the conventional, solvent based,
Paclitaxel.
Due to the above advantages of PacliALL over conventional Solvent based Paclitaxel, a higher
dosage of approximately 1.5 times can be given to patients, without the risk of increasing
side effects. The intra tumor concentration of drug is also very high when compared with the
conventional one because of targeted delivery.
Panacea Biotec sees great potential for the product in the rest of world. Keeping this in mind,
Panacea Biotec is setting up a new manufacturing facility with an investment of Rs. 55 crore
at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India in order to cater t o the growing demand in India, & also to
the international market. This facility is expected to begin commercial production by March
2012. In the next three years, the product will be globalized and PacliALL will be introduced
to several RoW markets, key EU markets and US market.
From Idea to Market
The research on the project started almost six years ago with the objective of bringing the
latest, state-of-the-art safe and effective medication to the country. These areas included the
nano-particles, microparticles and liposomes. At that time, the company was already into
novel drug delivery system with an R&D center located at Lalru, Punjab, with focus on oral
drug delivery.
Narrating the idea behind the product, Dr Ja in, says, “We decided to move away from
conventional technology and develop something that was upcoming at that time. We hired a
core team of scientists to look into this area of advanced drug delivery system and found
that nano-particle technology could help treat breast cancer patients with fewer side effects
and efficaciously.”
In 2005, the company hired some space on the premises of SNDT Women's College,
Mumbai, and started research on nano-particles. They also start ed work on the R&D Center,
which is now known as global research and development (GRAND), Navi Mumbai. The work
at the center, inaugurated on February, 11, 2008, was conceptualized over four core areas of
advanced drug delivery through especially programmable oral drug delivery system.
A team of about 15 scientists from India and abroad worked dedicatedly to make this
product a market reality. The technology involved emulsion-solvent evaporation and is based
on the principle of high pressure homogenization. Paclitaxel and albumin are in intimate
mixture and of a controlled particle size of less than 150 nm. The final product is stabilized
by lyophilization. Without giving the exact amount of investment to develop this product, Dr
Jain points out that the process of investments is still on.
To know more about PacliALL, please contact
Mr. Sarabjit Singh
Vice President - Pharmaceutical Research
Global Research & Development Centre (GRAND)
Panacea Biotec Limited
72/3 TTC Industrial Area,
Mahape, Navi Mumbai, INDIA – 400710
022 - 67333000
sarabjitsingh@panaceabiotec.com
Note on Breast Cancer
Worldwide, Female Breast Cancer comprises 10.4% of all cancer incidences among women,
making it the most common type of non-skin cancer in women and the fifth most common
cause of cancer death. According to WHO, Female Breast Cancer is one of the major
challenges where almost 1 out of 8 women is going to have this dreaded disease by 2020
across the Globe. In India around 80000+ patients are diagnosed with breast cancer every
year. Though science has made significant progress in the treatment of breast cancer but the
benefit is restricted to very few as the t reatment costs are highly unaffordable by majority of
by suffering population.
