| Manipal: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CEO of Biocon, will formally inaugurate Acunova Kasturba Hospital Clinical Research Centre at the Sai Baba Hospital of KMC Hospital Complex, Manipal, on Saturday. |
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| The centre is the research wing of the Manipal Group on drug trials on patients and volunteers. Acunova will have two departments; clinical trials and bio-availability and bio-equivalence (BaB). The centre is equipped with the stateof-the-art facilities. |
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| Prof Padma G.M. Rao, who is in charge of BaB, said new drugs and medicines will be tested for its bio-availability and bioequivalence. In other words, when a pharmaceutical company comes out with a new drug or medicine, and such medicines are also manufactured by other companies (competitors), the new product is put to test on volunteers with normal health. |
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| Dr Sudha Vidyasagar, professor of medicine and director of clinical trials, said a trial involves four phases. In the first phase, a normal healthy person is administered the drug for testing and in the second phase the drug is tested on a small group of actual patients. And in phase III the drug is tested at multi-centres (like many metropolis if it is an indigenous product, and in case of an MNC product, centres across the world) with the same protocol. The last trial is after the launch of the product in the market for adverse reaction of the drugs/medicines. She said many pharmaceutical companies approach their centres for conducting these tests. |
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| On Saturday, the Acunova will also host a CXO conclave at Manipal. The conclave will focus on the developing trends to the rapidly growing phar ma/biotechnolgy market. A panel comprising Dr Vijaraghavan, (director, NCBS), Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (CEO Biocon) Harpal Singh, chairman Fortis Health Care and D.A. Prasanna, vice-chairman and MD of Manipal Acunova will interact with the representatives of leading pharma companies. |
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| On the same day, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw will be conferred honorary doctorate by Manipal Academy of Higher Education in recognition of her pioneering contributions in the field of biotechnology. |
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