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Glaxo, Apollo Hospitals to have talks on collaboration

By Harichandan A.A.

BANGALORE Feb. 15. Glaxo SmithKline Plc and the Apollo Group of Hospitals are "on the verge of negotiations" to collaborate on a "disease management plan", the GSK officials have said.

Peter Goodfellow, Senior Vice-President, Discovery Research, GSK, said such tie-ups would mean higher sales for drug companies and correct information and treatment for patients.

In a bid to expand the market for its therapeutics, the drug company was thinking of tying up with other corporate hospitals. The disease management plan would target patients with chronic diseases such as asthma and hypertension, said Ira Gupta, Medical Adviser, GSK.

In an interview to The Hindu, Dr. Goodfellow said his company was exploring the possibility of working on "lead optimisation" for drug development with some Indian companies. Without naming the companies, he said that IPR issues were a major concern in establishing such tie-ups. Indian drug companies would have to respect product patent laws from 2005 as per WTO and TRIPS norms. This would change economic pressures on them. Innovation would be rewarded and open up possibilities of tie-ups with companies such as GSK, he said.

The Hindu Business Line reported recently that GSK was looking for such tie-ups where it would provide Indian companies with leads, but reserved for itself clinical trials.

Dr. Goodfellow said the medical infrastructure was lacking here for clinical trials. This was true in the context of genetic epidemiological studies required to find out if some people were genetically pre-disposed to respond better to a drug than others. Dr. Gupta said lack of documentation was a problem, apart from concerns such as "informed consent". The situation was changing, and such studies might happen here too, she said.

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